NOTES
Winds; elms: MJP to FLP and Jonathan, Dec. 3, 1950. Lee terrified of storms: Stein. Hanging show: Cavallon. Lee and Eames watching: Eames. “All you people”: Q. by Kamrowski. “It was more”: LK. See Allan Kaprow in “JP: An Artists’ Symposium,” p. 60. “It was bigger”: MJP to FLP, MLP, and Jonathan, Dec. 3, 1950. “Too big”: Q. by friend, name withheld by request. “A big smile”: MJP to FLP, MLP, and Jonathan, Dec. 3, 1950. “Absolutely ashen”: Zogbaum. Nothing in reserve: Hess, q. in Alloway. “The Art of JP,” p. 888. Drinking bourbon: CG. “I am a great artist”; “I don’t care”: Q. by Feldman. Gallery-going and parties: LK to Ossorio, Spring 1950. Depression deepened: Little. “More than 90”: JP to Ossorio, Jan. 6, 1951. Barging into de Laszlo’s: De Laszlo. Sessions with Hubbard: JP to Ossorio, Jan. 1951. “Drunken howlers”: Ossorio to LK and JP, n.d.
Paintings intimidating: Kamrowski, recalling Parsons. “Overhung”: CG. Prices: Catalogue for “JP,” exhibition at Betty Parsons Gallery, Nov. 28–Dec. 16, 1950. Disaster: Parsons, q. in Potter, p. 134. “Spread over”: Friedman, p. 198; Parsons (q. in Potter, p. 134) says it was only $1,200. “Heartbreaking”; “a terrible down”: Q. in Potter, p. 134. Greenberg not there: CG. “Deeply bitter”: Jackson. “Furious”: CG. “All you’ve written”: Q. by CG. “This is Jackson”: Q. by Motherwell, q. in Potter, p. 152. “More than ever before”: Devree, review, NYT, Dec. 3, 1950. “Found a discipline”: Goodnough, “Reviews and Previews,” p. 47. In contrast, Greenberg considered Number 32 the only “dud” in the show.
“Prod Tony”: Ossorio to LK and JP, n.d. “The concentration here”: JP to Ossorio and Dragon, Feb. 1951. “A new gallery”: JP to Ossorio and Dragon, June 7, 1951. Rocky relationship: See Parsons, q. in DP&G, “Who Was JP?” p. 55; see also Parsons, q. in Potter, p. 109. Complaints about too many artists: Friedman; Ossorio; Stolbach, recalling LK. Not pushing sales: Parsons, q. in “Betty Parsons,” p. 83: “I’ve never pushed sales very hard. Most dealers love the money. I love the painting.” No long-range plans: Ossorio, q. in Potter, p. 142. Cavalier treatment: Ferber; Wheelwright. Slipshod records: See Seldes, p. 23. Caring for her own art: Ferber. “Gallery dabbler”; “ego trip shows”: Q. by Stolbach. “Betty’s bins”: Tony Smith, q. by Jane Smith. “A lot of unrest”: JP to Ossorio and Dragon, Feb. 1951.
List of lesser-knowns: See Potter, p. 137. Hess’s motivation: Somberg. Hess championing de Kooning: Pavia, q. in Gruen, p. 272: ”Tom Hess was building [de Kooning] up.” “So much ridicule”: Q. in Gruen, p. 272. “The de Kooning camp”: Ernst. “I don’t need”: Q. by Ernst. The Betrothal: Friedman, p. 147. “Sat clutching”: Pavia, q. in Friedman, p. 148. “Why’d you do that?”; “a rotten book”: Q. in Friedman, p. 148. “An all-time low”: JP to Ossorio, Jan. 1951. “Abstract Painting and Sculpture”: Jan. 23–Mar. 25. JP’s Number 1, 1948 was shown. See Friedman, p. 170. Jackson’s behavior at MOMA; driven home by Lindeberg: Cavallon. “Couldn’t get any idea”: JP to Ossorio, Jan. 1951.
Lee canceling trip: As late as late January, JP was still planning for Krasner to accompany him; see JP to Ossorio, Jan. 1951. Objections to “contest”: In JP to Ossorio, Jan. 1951, JP referred to serving on a jury as “something I swore I’d never do.” Expenses paid: SMP to FLP, MLP, and Jonathan, Mar. 10. 1951. “I think seeing Chicago”: JP to Ossorio, Jan. 1951. Hard-nosed: CG. “Middle-of-the-road”: Friedman, p. 171. “Disappointing”: JP to Ossorio and Dragon, Feb. 1951. Culberg: He owned seventeen Dubuffets, one of which he had recently given to the Art Institute; JP to Ossorio and Dragon, Feb. 1951. Number 2, 1950: OC&T 261, II, p. 84. Place of honor: Isaacs to JP, Feb. 22, 1952. Awards dinner: Hopkins.
Hubbard’s recommendation: LK. Fox’s age: Friedman, p. 172. Fox was born on June 21, 1895, interned at Peking Union Medical College from 1925 to 1929 on a Rockefeller Foundation grant, and graduated from Rush Medical College in 1926. She was a resident at Colorado Psychopath Hospital in Denver from 1926 to 1927 and had been doing her groundbreaking research on Disulfiram since 1949. “Depth analysis” and group support: See Fox, “Treatment of Chronic Alcoholism,” p. 110. “Motivation … evaporates”: Fox, “Treatment of the Problem Drinker by the Private Practitioner,” p. 228. “The treating team”: Fox, “Treatment of the Problem Drinker by the Private Practitioner,” p. 229. Two hours: Fox, ”Treatment of the Problem Drinker by the Private Practitioner,” p. 231. Sympathetic and firm: Fox, “A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Treatment of Alcoholism,” p. 37. “Longings for omnipotence”: Fox, “A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Treatment of Alcoholism,” p. 36. “Problems in the sexual area”: Fox and Lyon, p. 82. “An unconscious fantasy”: Fox and Lyon, p. 156.
“Vestigial traces”: Fox and Lyon, p. 84. “Completely dominate”; “The predisposing traits”: Fox and Lyon, p. 89. “A waste of … time”: Fox, “A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Treatment of Alcoholism,” p. 37. “Postponing … abstinence”: Fox, “Treatment of the Problem Drinker by the Private Practitioner,” p. 234. Disulfiram: See Fox, “Treatment of Chronic Alcoholism,” p. 110. “Forced him”: Q. by Newman, int. by Peretz. Details of will: JP, Will and Letter of Request, Mar. 9, 1951. “Modern art to me”: Int. by William Wright, 1951.
“Dour son of a bitch”: Barbara Hale to LK and JP, July 20, 1951. Portfolio: [Brodovitch], “JP,” n.p. Art News citation: “The Year’s Best,” pp. 42–43, 58–59. “The new soft look”: “American Fashion,” pp. 156–59. Number 3, 1951: OC&T 818, III, p. 297. Friedman (p. 173) says that in March, a JP watercolor entitled Number 1, 1951 appeared in the Whitney Annual. We have been unable to identify the work. It could have been Number 7, 1951 (OC&T 815, III, p. 294), an ink drawing on rice paper, which appeared in the following year’s Whitney “Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Sculpture, Watercolors, and Drawings,” Mar. 13–May 4, 1952. “Pollock uses metallic paint”: Goodnough, “Pollock Paints a Picture,” p. 41. Ninth Street Show: May 21–June 10, 1951. Plans for October show: Oct. 2–27, 1951; OC&T IV, p. 264. “Automatic painting”: Arnaud Raynor to JP, Aug. 25, 1951. Tokyo Exhibition: Feb. 27–Mar. 18, 1951; see Friedman, p. 173. Mount Pleasant letter: S. Carl Fracassini, Art Department, Iowa Wesleyan College, to JP, Apr. 8, 1951. Number 31, 1949: OC&T 242, II, p. 64. Number 12A, 1948: OC&T 200, II, pp. 20–21; “Calligraphic and Geometric: Two Recent Linear Tendencies in American Painting”; see Friedman, p. 159, where, through a typographical error, the original painting in this exhibition is misidentified as Number 13, 1949. Fargo: Jan. 8–29, 1951. Fort Worth: Texas Christian University, June 2–23, 1952. Galerie Nina Dausset: Friedman, pp. 173–74. “Decadent bourgeois”: Soviet journalist, q. in Friedman, p. 168, citing Thomas Hess’s manuscript for Abstract Painting.
Drawings on Japanese paper: JP to Ossorio, Jan. 1951: “I have been making some drawings on Japanese paper.” Collages: Number 2, 1951. OC&T 1039, IV, pp. 114–15; OC&T 1040, IV, pp. 116–17. Sculpture: OC&T 1054, IV, p. 130. “Sculpture by Painters”: Mar. 27–Apr. 21, 1951. Script for film: See Putz, JP, pp. 108–09, which includes a facsimile. Namuth’s claim (n.p.) that the script was a “communal effort” in which JP took part is, at best, an exaggeration. “Authenticity”: Namuth, n.p. “My home”: Narration to JP, produced by Hans Namuth and Paula Falkenberg, 1951. Nervous haste: Potter, p. 139. Jackson appalled by voice: JP to Ossorio and Dragon, June 7, 1951. “Music-effects”: Falkenberg. q. in Namuth, n.p. Balinese folk music: Solomon, p. 320: Gamelan music. “But Paul”: Q. by Falkenberg, in Namuth, n.p. No money for score: Namuth, n.p. Lee not liking film: Nivola, q. in Potter, p. 140; Lewis, “Two Paris Shows à la Pollock.” Cage work: Imaginary Landscape No. 4, 1951. “I couldn’t abide”: Q. by Sandler. Cage Introducing Feldman: Feldman, q. in Potter, p. 139. Feldman a young friend: JP to Ossorio and Dragon, June 7, 1951. Ink drawing as fee: Feldman, q. in Potter, p. 139. “[I] wrote the score”: Q. in Friedman, p. 173. Feldman’s score for two cellos was recorded by Daniel Stern; Namuth, n.p.
“Might be great”: JP to Ossorio and Dragon, June 7, 1951. Film showing: Several famous pe
ople who were invited didn’t come, including Blanchette and Nelson Rockefeller; Blanchette Rockefeller to JP, June 11, 1951, and David D. [Boyer], secretary to Nelson Rockefeller, to JP, June 11, 1951. Black ink drawings: See, e.g., OC&T 787–96, III, pp. 272–77. Lee shocked: LK, int. by Friedman, in Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, n.p.: “I had no idea why figures reemerged in his work, or why he limited himself to black.” “Drawing on canvas”: JP to Ossorio and Dragon, June 7, 1951. Using brush: See, e.g., Number 11, 1951, OC&T 341, II. pp. 160–62. Lee seeing image: Little. “Early images”: JP to Ossorio and Dragon, June 7, 1951.
Smith’s flattery: Jane Smith: “Tony would say, ‘These are the artists: Newman, Pollock, Rothko, Still.’ And he’d just say it over, and over, and over, and then you’d hear it played back.” See also Myers. It helped that Smith wasn’t (yet) a painter: He later said (q. by Shepperd) that he was able to get along with the painters because he “wasn’t directly competing with them.” Sitting together in silence: Ward. Devotion to Smith: Brooks; Bultman. Letters to Ossorio: JP to Ossorio and Dragon, Feb. 1951: “Tony has finally gotten two houses—one design is finished—really something terrific.” Jane leaving: Smith. Smith’s weekend visits: Johnson, q. in Potter, p. 123. Evenings together: Carmean and Rathbone, p. 148. Oriental philosophy: Tony Smith, q. in DP&G, “Who Was JP?” p. 54. “Constructive dream”: JP to Ossorio, Jan. 1951.
“Try something new”: Tony Smith, q. by Johnson, Triad: OC&T 198, n.p. 19. White Cockatoo: OC&T 194, II, p. 14. Sketching together: Ohlson. “The Orozco”: Q. by Smith, int. by Vallière, Aug. 1965. Refugees from Orozco: For O’Connor’s often misguided interpretations of these figures, see FVOC, JP. Imagery kept alive: See e.g., War, OC&T 765, III, pp. 254–55 (1947); 770–75, III, pp. 259–61 (1946–47); 783, III, p. 267 (1943–49). Smith’s wife Jane recalls that “Tony and Jackson had this mutual feeling about [Orozco]. They loved his work and talked about it often.” Joseph Smith: Jane Smith.
Gift of paper and ink: Carmean, in Carmean and Rathbone, p. 137: “Tony Smith recalls giving Pollock a booklet or pad of rice paper, in a long scroll-like format on September 26, 1950.” But Jane Smith recalls buying the rice paper as a present for JP around Christmas time that year when JP and Lee Krasner were staying at Ossorio’s house in MacDougal Alley: “We went to Chinatown with Barney [Newman] and Lee [Krasner]. Jackson did not go because he didn’t feel well. I got the idea that we must take something back to him, so I bought rice paper for him in a Chinese store.” Jackson experimenting: See OC&T 811–26, III, pp. 290–305. Ghost image: Carmean and Rathbone, p. 137. Gouache: OC&T 814, III, p. 293 (white gouache); OC&T 820, III, p. 299 (green gouache). Watercolor: OC&T 824, III, p. 303; Number 18, 1951, OC&T 826, III, p. 305. Paint: Number 8, 1951, OC&T 816, III, p. 295. “A very clear”: De Laszlo.
Anatomies emerging in piles: Number 16, 1951, OC&T 337, II, p. 156 (totemic figures, heads, eyes, body parts, all mixed up); Number 9, 1951. OC&T 340, II, p. 159. Animals: Number 21, 1951 “Frogman,” OC&T 335, II, p. 153 (could be a bull, heavily obscured; O’Connor sees a female figure); Number 21, 1951, OC&T 334, II, p. 152 (figure on left side; O’Connor sees a monkey). Totemic figures: Number 3, 1951 (Image of a Man), OC&T 321, II, p. 134. Reclining figures: Number 11, 1951, OC&T 341, II, pp. 160–62 (O’Connor sees a reclining figure). Crucifixion: [Black and White Painting III], OC&T 332, II, p. 150 (Christ-like figure; O’Connor sees a figure taken from Orozco’s mural, The Trench, 1932; FVOC, p. 13.) Hulking females: Number 27, 1951, OC&T 328, II, pp. 144–45 (head on right with “dream” over it; Orozcoesque woman on left, undoubtedly painted as two pictures but left uncut). Portraits: Number 24, 1951, OC&T 331, II, p. 149 (“double” head, not so disguised). All but obliterated: Number 4, 1951, OC&T 316, II, p. 129, acquired by Ruth Fox. Child on lap: Number 20, 1951, OC&T 338, II, p. 157 (O’Connor sees a seated figure with a child in its lap). Bull in field: Number 14, 1951, OC&T 336, II, pp. 154–55 (bull or she-wolf type image). Woman with skeletal family: Number 7, 1951, OC&T 324, II, pp. 138–39 (an abstracted version, perhaps, of the early canvas of the horrifying woman with the pendulous breasts surrounded by six actual skeletons, one for each of the six men in Stella’s life). Upside down: [Black and White Painting II], OC&T 330, II, p. 148. He also combined images, as in Number 7, 1951, OC&T 324, II, pp. 138–39. Remnants: LK, int. by Friedman, in Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, n.p. One after another: This process can be seen clearly in [Black and White Polyptych], OC&T 298, II, pp. 120–21. “‘Should I cut it’”: Int. by Friedman in Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, n.p. “Rubensesque”: Tony Smith, int. by Vallière, Aug. 1965. Number 14, 1951: OC&T 336, II, pp. 154–55. Echo: OC&T 345, II, pp. 166–67. “His control was amazing”: Friedman, introduction to Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, n.p. According to Alloway (“Pollock’s Black Paintings,” pp. 40–43), the paintings should be called “black” rather than “black and white,” since no white paint was used. Drawing into painting: See Bernice Rose, JP. “Was worried”: Q. in Potter, p. 204.
Binges: Wilcox. Beer from Miller’s: Marca-Relli. Federico sobering him up: Talmage. “Slumped over”: Wilcox. “Pollock got there first”: Int. by Shorthall, Nov. 9, 1959. AA meetings: Potter, p. 218. “Blabbermouths”: Q. by Busa. “Lonelyhearts”: Q. by Potter, p. 218. “They got to drink”: Q. by Potter, p. 218. “Too red-hot”: Penny Potter, q. in Potter, p. 218. “Without Antabuse”: Fox, “The Alcoholic Spouse,” p. 166; Fox also wrote (Fox and Lyon, p. 175): “Antabuse alone can cure very few if any cases of alcoholism; taken in conjunction with psychotherapy, it can be of very real use.” Regent Hospital: Zucker: Between Lexington and Park; not the hospital of the same name that currently exists. Dr. Zucker, who examined JP for Dr. Fox during one of his visits, was amazed by the “thick wads of firm tissue under Jackson’s kneecaps.” JP told him that he got them “because I paint on my knees.” JP was forthcoming during the interview, refusing only to own up to having hidden the bottle of scotch during his last visit. Scotch in lavatory: Zucker. “Dear Jackson”: Valentine Macy to JP, June 25, 1951.
“Even more determinedly”: Larry Rivers, q. in “JP: An Artists’ Symposium, Part I,” p. 32. “Very quiet summer”: JP to Ossorio and Dragon, Aug. 1951. “Absolutely roaring”: Zogbaum. Pathetic and menacing: See Potter, p. 136. Maidstone Club set: See Enez Whipple, q. in Potter, p. 112. Locals thinking him crazy: Edward Hults; Talmage. “Turn all the lights out”: Q. in Potter, p. 136. “Phony cowboy”: Q. by Wilcox. “It just wasn’t the same”: Wilcox. “I think the house”: JP to Ossorio and Dragon, Aug. 1951. “The Creeks”: Ossorio; Hefner, ed., pp. 109–10. “Formidable sugar magnate”: Gibbs, recalling LK. “Well, fuck it”: Q. by LK, q. by Gibbs. “Went off to a bar”: Q. by Gibbs.
Lee’s work liberated: See Barbara Rose, pp. 66–69. “Lee is doing”: JP to Ossorio and Dragon, June 7, 1951. Ninth Street Show: May 21–June 10, 1951. “The little lady”: Harry Jackson. Lee’s work bigger: She painted more than one 4′10″ × 6‘10½” work—Blue and Black, 1951–53, and Untitled, 1951. Lee insisting on Parsons visit: Barbara Rose (p. 70) says it was in spring, but JP and LK didn’t return to Springs until the second week in May; SMP to MLP, FLP, and Jonathan, June 4, 1951. Jackson acquiescing: Bultman. “[Jackson] telephoned me”: Parsons, q. in DP&G. “Who Was JP?” pp. 48–59. See also Nemser (p. 92) where Krasner tries to use JP’s phone call to refute the argument that he saw her as a competitor. Ended in Regent Hospital: Zucker.
“This was some woman”: Int. by Peretz. “Languid poses”: Tabak, p. 53. Hofmann, de Kooning: Esteban Vicente; Harriet Vicente. Zogbaum: Peterson. Feldman: Friedman. Guston: Esteban Vicente; Harriet Vicente. “An affair”: Tabak, p. 56. “Could not wait”: Tabak, pp. 129–30. “Knockout”: Carone. “Play with”: Rosenberg. “Count the notches”: Kadish. Glueck: “It was pure Mozart, pure Don Giovanni.” No affair: Peterson; Esteban Vicente; Harriet Vicente. The woman’s husband: “I never heard that, and she would have told me the truth. Lee believed it, but she was paranoid about these things.” Late one night: LK. Rosenberg rental: The
Rosenbergs had rented a house from Wilfrid Zogbaum to be used as a studio for Harold but had moved to it temporarily because it was better insulated than their own house on Neck Path. “Don’t you hurt”: Q. by May Rosenberg.
Jackson looking for mystical treatment: See Potter, p. 146. “Turn it on”: Q. in Potter, p. 146. Hubbard recommending “biochemist”: Ossorio. “Drive his thirst”: Dragon. Park Avenue offices: Ossorio. Description of Mark: Ossorio. “Business Manager”; “Psychological-Chemistry, Inc.”: Mark to JP, Dec. 4, 1952. “Best living advertisement”: Q. by Ossorio. Treatment of mother: Ossorio. “Svengali air”: Potter, p. 145. Jackson falling under spell: Dragon. “Chemical derangement”: JP, q. in Potter, p. 146. No milk products: CG, int. by Shorthall, Nov. 9, 1959. “Eat no bird”: Ossorio. Fowl shot within two hours: Dragon. Daily baths: Friedman, q. in Potter, p. 145. Soy-based “emulsion”: Potter, p. 145. “Lest it lose”: Ossorio, int. by Shorthall, Nov. 9, 1959. “The box would”: Ossorio, q. in DP&G, “Who was JP?” p. 58. Ossorio gave conflicting testimony on how many bottles constituted a week’s supply, saying once (int. by Shorthall, Nov. 9, 1959) that it was four and once (q. in DP&G, “Who Was JP?” p. 58) that it was seven. “Find its own level”: JP, q. by Ossorio. Copper and zinc: Raphael Gribitz, q. in Potter, p. 145. “Oh, dear God”: Wilcox.
Lee visited Hubbard and working: Dragon, q. in Potter, p. 203. Reversal in Lee’s work: Barbara Rose, p. 70. “[Lee’s] work”: SMP to FLP, MLP, and Jonathan, Nov. 30, 1951. McCoys at opening: SMP to CCP, Oct. 22, 1951. Lee complimented: Mercer. Preston review: Preston, “Among One-Man Shows.” Lee’s reaction to review: LK.
Jackson’s show: Nov. 26–Dec. 15, 1951. “His painting confronts”: Betty Parsons Gallery, n.p. Friedman (p. 185) says that Ossorio wrote this in August 1951 and originally conceived of it as an introduction for the upcoming Paris exhibition with Tapié. In fact, Ossorio wrote it for this show and it was used later in the Paris catalogue. Smith’s suggestion: JP to Ossorio and Dragon, June 7, 1951. Parsons underwriting prints: Friedman (p. 185) says the funding of $400 came from Alexander Bing. Prints: OC&T 1091–96, IV, p. 154. Reproduced from paintings: Number 7, 1951, OC&T 324, II, pp. 138–39; Number 8, 1951, OC&T 327, II, pp. 142–43; Number 9, 1951, OC&T 340, II, p. 159; Number 19, 1951, OC&T 333, II, pp. 150–51; Number 22, 1951, OC&T 344, II, p. 165; Number 27, 1951, OC&T 328, II, pp. 144–45. Pulled by Sande: See Friedman, p. 185. Solomon, p. 226: JP visited the shop one day to see what Sande was doing. “All I want is five hundred dollars,” he told Sande; q. by ACM. Visitors rare: LK. “Jesus”: Q. by Blake. Dropping by drunk: Jenkins. In fact, JP was drunk at his show for the first time: Paul Jenkins came by and saw that JP had “tied one on that day and he was sensing outrage and tension.” “Finality”: CCP. “Foreboding of death”: De Laszlo.
Jackson Pollock Page 156
