Jackson Pollock

by Steven Naifeh

Reports of Goldstein’s expulsion: Ashton, p. 14. Goldstein continuing to provide illustrations: Cartoons appeared on Feb. 4, 19; Mar. 12; Apr. 2, 16, 30; May 7, 21, 28; and June 4, 1929. Brown’s departure: “Don Brown, Popular Spectator Editor, Leaves Manual,” MAW, June 11, 1929. Lindbergh: MAW, May 7, 1929. Von Hindenburg: MAW, May 21, 1929; Hoover: MAW, June 4, 1929. “I wanted”: Q. in Solomon, p. 42. Roy making trip to Los Angeles: LRP to CCP, Apr. 30, 1929. Roy’s attitude toward schooling: CCP. “The secret”: LRP to JP, Sept. 19, 1928. “If you are well satisfied”: LRP to JP, Dec. 11, 1927.

  Pollock at Communist meetings: JP to CCP and FLP, Oct. 10, 1929; MJP. Jewish Community Center: Solomon, pp. 42–43. Pollock and Mexican muralists: JP to CCP and FLP, Oct. 22, 1929. Mexican artists agitating for revolution: The artists wanted “to make their production of ideological value to the people,” to make the “goal of art, which now is an expression of individualistic masturbation … one of beauty for all, of education and of battle”; manifesto, 1923, of the Syndicate of Revolutionary Painters, Sculptors, and Engravers of Mexico, q. in Goldman, p. 4.

  Trip to Ojai: Lehman; Araks Tolegian, recalling Manuel; Ashton, p. 14. Description of campground: Photo in possession of Krishnamurti Foundation of America. Two thousand followers: In fact, some twelve hundred participants showed up for the camp; J., “Before the Ojai Camp,” p. 35. Air at Ojai: Lutyens, p. 158. “Imagine Italy”: Q. in Lutyens, p. 257. Organization of camp; “sheets, blankets”: “Ojai Star Camp,” pp. 30–31. Light-flecked ground: J., “Before the Ojai Camp,” p. 35. “Divine Spirit”; “World Teacher”: Annie Besant, q. in the Theosophist, Jan. 1927, q. in Lutyens, p. 259. “Overwhelmed”; “it reminded one”: Charles W. Leadbeater to Fabrizio Ruspoli, in the Australian Theosophist, Oct. 1928, q. in Lutyens, p. 59. “An odd figure”: Emily Lutyens, Candles in the Sun, pp. 30–35. Krishnamurti’s clothing: Lutyens, p. 100. “Like many”: Campbell, p. 128.

  “Isn’t the theory”: Krishnamurti, “Some Questions and Answers,” p. 18. Wandering through countryside: Prasad, “News Letter from America,” p. 38. Bach: “Glimpses of the Ojai Camp,” p. 20: performed June 2 by the Bach singers. Oriental music: “Glimpses of the Ojai Camp,” p. 11: performed May 28 by Mrs. Henry Eichem. Plays: Shaw’s Dark Lady of the Sonnets and Barrie’s Rosalind, along with an adaptation of Tolstoy’s Michael, performed June 1; “Glimpses of the Ojai Camp,” p. 19. Dance: “Glimpses of the Ojai Camp,” p. 21: performed June 2 by Ruth St. Denis. Eating at long tables: Photo in possession of Krishnamurti Foundation of America.

  Krishnamurti reciting poem: “Glimpses of the Ojai Camp,” p. 16. “Ah, come”: Krishnamurti, ISB, June 1930, p. 13. Meeting Krishnamurti: Lehman: Others from Manual Arts did meet him. “Vague and dreamy”: Lutyens, p. 4. “Be rather”: Krishnamurti, Life the Goal (Ommen, Holland: Star Publishing Trust, 1928), q. in Lutyens, pp. 279–80. A similar statement was recorded at the 1929 Ojai camp: “You have come here to find out how to live. … Before you can discover that, you will have to go through the process of rejection. … I say this not that I may have followers. I do not want anything from anyone”; “Glimpses of the Ojai Camp,” p. 7. “Follow the Occult”: JP to CCP and FLP, Oct. 22, 1919. Refusing meat: ACM; Laxineta.

  Jackson going to Santa Ynez; “cooking and washing”: LRP to CCP and FLP, July 20, 1929. Visit lasting a month: Laxineta. “Batching together”: LRP to CCP and FLP, July 20, 1929. “Wanted to come back”: Q. by Laxineta. “[Jack] is a very good”: LRP to CCP and FLP, July 20, 1929. Fight the summer of 1929: Busa: The fight took place when JP was working with his father; this was the only time they worked together without others in the family. Laxineta: JP returned earlier than expected, disgruntled, from his summer stint. Fistfight: Busa, recalling JP; Wilcox, recalling JP. Desire to return home: Busa, recalling JP; Laxineta. “I do not think”; “the secret of success”: LRP to JP, Sept. 19, 1928. Jackson refusing to work with father again: Roy would have expected JP to take a summer job along with Frank, who came back home from New York for that purpose; FLP.

  Manual Arts gang dispersed: Guston was staying with his mother in Ocean Park, Lehman was now living at West Lake Park, and Tolegian was still living near Jefferson Boulevard in south Los Angeles; Lehman. Schwankovsky at Laguna: Although Schwankovsky occasionally taught summer school courses in Los Angeles, he tended to spend school vacations with his family in Laguna Beach; Duncan. Sande’s expensive suits: Kadish: SLM spent $180 on a suit and $30 on a pair of shoes. Sande’s separate friends; Arloie hinting about marriage; roadster coupe: ACM. Loan to Cooter: Cooter.

  Jackson’s letter to Charles: Although lost, the contents can be inferred from Charles’s response. Charles not seen in four years: The last time he visited was probably Christmas 1925. First letter in eight years: CCP. “[Jack] held Charles”: Kadish. Charles drafting reply: The final copy of the letter no longer exists, only the amended first draft, and the first paragraph of a tentative final draft. It was Charles’s practice to draft letters and then prepare a final copy in calligraphic script; he later taught courses in calligraphy at Michigan State University; CCP. “With clearer understanding”: JP to CCP, Oct. 22, 1929. “Your letter has confounded me”: CCP to JP, n.d. “The possibilities of architecture”: Charles later wanted his daughter Jeremy to become an architect. Charles’s closing: Krishnamurti, LIF, p. 34: “As every human being is divine, so every individual in the world should be his own master, his own absolute ruler and guide.”

  September 10: “Purple Portals Open Today; Initial Grind Commences,” MAW, Sept. 10, 1929. Surveyor’s boots; “ham actor”; “I really think”; “seclusive”: Int. by Hoag, Feb. 12, 1965. “In the background”: ABP. Flouting course requirements: Araks Tolegian, recalling Manuel. Los Angeles high school rules: MAW, Sept. 10, 1929. Jackson taking English classes: JP to CCP and FLP, Oct. 22, 1929: “I am now taking American Literature, Contemporary Literature, Clay Modeling and the life class.” Based on class schedules, the literature teacher had to be either Blanche Freeman or Lucy Hifle. “Rotten”; “cold and lifeless”; “[when I had] to talk”: JP to CCP and FLP, Oct. 22, 1929. “He just wouldn’t attend”: Int. by Hoag, Feb. 12, 1965.

  “Prospective gridiron heroes”; looking for “beefers”: Bob McGraw, “Poly, L.A. High, Lincoln and Franklin Have Championship Contenders, Hollywood’s Line Experienced and Plunge-Proof,” MAW, Sept. 17, 1929. “The battle of the ages”; “slackers”: Bob McGraw, “Poly, L.A. High,” MAW, Sept. 17, 1929. “Purple and grey hoghiders” favored: “Football Prospects Bright as Manual and Poly Favored by Local Newspaper Writers,” MAW, Sept. 10, 1929. “It’s a ghastly”: Bob McGraw, “Tanbark Talk,” MAW, Sept. 24, 1929. Jackson ambushed by football players: Araks Tolegian, recalling Manuel; Wilcox, recalling JP. Jackson’s appearance: Araks Tolegian, recalling Manuel: “They didn’t like him at all—he wore surveyor boots and dressed funny.” Manuel Tolegian, int. by Hoag, Feb. 12, 1965: “He was dressed eccentrically. I can see why he didn’t have too many friends among football players in high school.”

  “Mean, short-tempered”: Turnquist. “Came to blows”; principal’s office: JP to CCP and FLP, Oct. 22, 1929. “The Czar”: Sprenger, p. 18. Wilson’s background; “no alibi”: Sprenger, pp. 17–19. “He was too thick”; “I have a number”: JP to CCP and FLP, Oct. 22, 1929. Teachers defending Pollock: Araks Tolegian, recalling Manuel. Stella meeting with Wilson: FLP. “If I get back”; “another fellow”; “we were ignorant”: JP to CCP and FLP, Oct. 22, 1929.

  “Ladies’ man”: Rosenberg. Goldstein demoted to “assistant”: Although Goldstein’s name continued to be listed on the masthead through December, none of his cartoons or marginal illustrations appeared in the paper; see MAW from Sept. 10, 1929 to Jan. 28, 1930. Jackson withdrawing: McClure, recalling SMP. Jackson’s nightmares: JP to CCP, Jan. 31, 1930. “If there is”; “a new outlook”: JP to CCP and FLP, Oct. 22, 1929.

  Hungry scavenging for garbage: Weaver, p. 110. Soup kitchens denied: Weaver, p. 109: “The situation is not alarming,” Mayor John R. Porter said
in response to the Depression. “We do not find it necessary to feed our unemployed men here. In San Francisco I saw free soup kitchens. There are none here.” “Suicide Bridge”: McWilliams, p. 246. From October to December, industrial production dropped more than 9 percent; from September to December, imports dropped 20 percent; McElvaine, p. 48. By 1933, there was a drop of 29 percent in GNP, 78 percent in construction, and an astonishing 98 percent in investments. Unemployment rose from 3.2 percent to 24.9 percent; McElvaine, p. 75. “Lift the city”: Los Angeles Times, q. in Weaver, p. 110. Pollock readmitted: Probably after the Christmas vacation, but before the end of the first semester. “This so called happy part”: JP to CCP, Jan. 31, 1930. JP used only lowercase letters in typing this letter to Charles.

  “Choosy about girls”: Q. anonymously in Ashton, p. 16. Cooter, too, wondered “why Jack’s not interested in girls.” Jackson receiving word through Stella: JP to CCP, Jan. 31, 1930: “[I] suppose mother keeps you posted on family matters.” Charles meeting Elizabeth: Chronology prepared by CCP for EFP, Feb. 1975. By this time, Elizabeth Feinberg had begun using her pen name, Elizabeth England; EFP. Frank courting Marie: FLP. Although they did not meet until June 15, 1930 (MLP), Frank was by now clearly eager for a relationship. Meeting Berthe: Laxineta. Place where Hodges boarded: 1900 West Forty-second Street, says Lehman, who later boarded there; but Horton, who owned the house, says it was 4017 West Forty-third. “Musical jam”: Laxineta; Solomon, p. 44.

  Severe dress: Lehman. Long hair: Laxineta. Authoritative touch; stiff demeanor: Lehman. Berthe’s reaction to Jackson; “clean”: Laxineta. Berthe not attracting good-looking boys: Horton: Her previous boyfriend was Al Linde, “a big, big bruiser”—“six feet six inches tall and about just as wide.” Bertha changed to Berthe; “Holy cow, no!”: Laxineta. “In fact, she was overly serious”: Lehman. Recognizing Pollock; curtailing practice: Laxineta: She had been giving recitals since she was twelve. Pollock earning money: JP, along with his friends, could conceivably have earned some money by firing ceramics: “We have gotten up a group and have arranged a furnace where we can have our stuff fired. we will give the owner a commission for the firing and glazing. there is a chance of my making a little book money”; JP to CCP, Jan. 21, 1930. Also, he could have borrowed the money from Sande, who apparently was doing well in his job with the Times. Gifts: Laxineta.

  Victorian house: Lehman. Location of Pacifico home: Horton. Jackson winning over Pacificos: Horton; Laxineta. Jackson driving Pacifico car; rolling cigarettes; Kranich & Bach; “all he was interested in”; Berthe allowing a kiss; Beethoven, Chopin, and Gershwin: Laxineta. Bungalow court: Precisely when the Pollocks moved to their new home and its precise location are not known. Berthe not shown drawings: Laxineta. Pollock working furiously: Horton.

  “I am doubtful”; “architecture interests me”: JP to CCP and FLP, Oct. 22, 1929. Pollock never in watercolor class: No mention in JP to CCP, Oct. 22, 1929. “[I] have started”: JP to CCP, Jan. I, 1930. Martin not accomplished; “group of figures”: Lehman, who remembers JP’s student works as relief sculptures. “Some of his work”: Kadish. “My drawing [I] will tell you”: JP to CCP, Jan. 1, 1930. Tolegian, int. by Hoag, Feb. 12, 1965: “He was not too successful in classic art. He didn’t quite master it.” Yet his work did have a certain energy and control over color, and his friends later claimed to have recognized this at the time. Even Tolegian admitted that he “had a great feeling for color, you know, and there is no doubt about it, he was a natural born painter, artist, you know.” Kadish: “I remember some of his drawings. They had a lot of energy. We all admired it. Now, Phil was very slick. There’s no question about it. And Harold Lehman the same way. But Jack came along with all the energy, and you felt that he had it, the command. Even in the relationship between Tolegian and Phil Guston and Jack in the high school days, there was always this thing—‘Wait till you see this guy, boy’s he’s a terrific guy, no matter, anything and everything he does.’”

  February 3: MAW, Feb. 3, 1930. Pollock reenrolling: JP to CCP, Jan. 1, 1930. Ungraded basis: Los Angeles Unified School District Records: His courses were “UNG”—ungraded. Lehman moving to Los Angeles; casting studio: Lehman. “A great genius”; “unbelievable talent”: Cherry. “As though I was”; Jackson’s athletic body; Pollock admiring Lehman; browsing in bookstores: Lehman. McWilliams, p. 231: “As a community at the end of a long trail of migration, Los Angeles became the junkyard for a continent.” Stanley Rose’s bookshop: Lehman: He bought Théodore Duret on the Impressionists and Ezra Pound on Gaudier-Brzeska, along with old copies of Creative Art, The Studio, The Arts, Burlington, and Connoisseur. Like Charles, Lehman liked to tear pictures out of magazines: “I always looked up Vanity Fair and tore out the art pages.” Daltzell-Hatfield and Stendhal galleries: The two best private galleries in town; Daltzell-Hatfield also showed western watercolorists and some other modern American paintings imported from New York; Lehman. “Picturesque”; “didn’t like to draw”: Lehman.

  Monologues; Lehman and Goldstein at L.A. High: Lehman. Goldstein’s scholarship: “M.A. Art Students Receive Several Scholarships,” MAW, June 23, 1930. Playing records: Lehman. Discussing filmmaking: Ashton, p. 16. Reporting on tracts: Lehman. On May 18, 1930, JP traveled to Schwankovsky’s Laguna Beach studio, “The Little Art Theater”—Araks Tolegian, recalling Manuel, called it nothing but “a gas station with a view”—to hear Krishnamurti speak. More than five hundred enthusiasts crammed into the small garden to hear the former “Master,” who had by now disavowed the Theosophists and the divinity they had conferred on him; “Krishnamurti Relates Personal Ideas and Doctrines to Group of Young Philosophers,” MAW, May 20, 1930. Afterward, Schwankovsky wrote about Krishnamurti for the Weekly: “Krishnamurti’s heroic point of view will appeal to the youth of today who lives in an age when … it is usually hard to find heroes to worship;” q. in “Krishnamurti Relates Personal Ideas and Doctrines to Group of Young Philosophers,” MAW, May 20, 1930.

  In a 1924 Buick: FLP. Kadish: “When Charles came back to Los Angeles, he came back like a patriarch.” Charles visiting Phoenix; return to Los Angeles: CCP: In Phoenix, Charles found work illustrating a fledgling magazine called Arizona. Charles introduced to Arthur Millier: CCP. Millier, who also contributed to national publications, such as Time and the Christian Science Monitor, wrote for the Los Angeles Herald Express after his retirement from the Times; Millier, Jr.: His father “prized his abilities as a journalist above being an artist.” More dispassionate observers have confirmed his son’s estimation that, “in those days, he was the premier critic in the western United States.” Times copyboy; “layout, fancy lettering”: CCP.

  Enrolling at Otis; moving to Echo Park; student activities: CCP. Grant Rusk of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to authors, Dec. 2, 1985: “Checked all exhibitions taking place from 1922 to 1926 and could come up with only one that had something to do with Mexican artists.” This was the “First Pan-American Exhibition of Oil Paintings,” held at the Museum from November 27, 1925, to February 28, 1926, and included one painting by Rivera, Día de Flores, but none by either Orozco or Siqueiros. Charles buying magazines: CCP. Millier suggesting League: Kadish.

  Charles arriving in New York; “received with open arms”: CCP. Charles studying with Benton: Charles studied first, briefly, with Boardman Robinson and Max Weber, the other two American artists whose work he had seen at the Exposition Park show in L.A.; CCP. Bentons finding apartment: CCP; chronology prepared by CCP for EFP, Feb. 1975. The address was 36 Eighth Avenue; FLP. Charles invited to Martha’s Vineyard: THB to CCP, July 14, 1928. Charles babysitting: FLP. Charles’s work in New York: CCP.

  Art women’s work: Discussed by many of the artists or former artists we interviewed—especially Kron, Lassaw, and Slivka. Art a manly exercise: Benton (p. 265) had nothing but the most articulate disdain for art and artists who created under the influence of “nervous whim and under the sway of … overdelicate sensibilities” and “Our New York aberrants … of the g
entle feminine type with predilections for the curving wrist and outthrust hip.” Spats and vests: CCP. Shirts and suspenders: Photo in possession of AAA.

  Frank leaving for Big Pines: FLP. Trip to Pomona: CCP. Prometheus: Helm, pp. 49–51. Articles recommended by Charles: JP to CCP and FLP, Oct. 22, 1929. Charles leaving for Wrightwood; Stella’s acceptance of Sande and Arloie: CCP. Jackson remaining in Los Angeles: FLP. Laxineta says his father wanted him to come to work but he refused. She claims this was because JP didn’t want to leave her, but according to McClure, JP didn’t see much of her over the summer. Paul McClure: Son of Stella’s brother Cameron McClure. Jackson sketching furiously; “Jack idolized Charles”: McClure. Jackson urged to go to New York: CCP to authors, Sept. 1983. Proposing to Berthe: Laxineta: “He was going to go east and he didn’t want to lose me.” “We would live”: Q. by Laxineta. “She thought we were too young”: Laxineta. “You’re so naive”: Q. in Solomon, p. 46. Laxineta: She was practicing for a performance with the L.A. Philharmonic Orchestra.

  Trip to New York: FLP: The only mishap took place in New Jersey, where “some troopers stopped us because we had some guns in the car. And we had a dirty car, and we probably had some dirty hats on and western gear of some sort. We had the top down, and there we were, three wild men, unshaven.” “Too long”; “didn’t sound very interesting”: CCP. Friedman (p. 8) notes incorrectly that JP had been called Paul until this time. When interviewed by Hoag (Feb. 12, 1965), Tolegian incorrectly said that he and JP went to New York together.

  11. THE BEST PAINTER IN THE FAMILY

  SOURCES

  Books, articles, manuscripts, records, and transcripts

  Allen, Since Yesterday; Ashton, The New York School; Baigell, THB; THB, An American in Art (American); An Artist in America (Artist); Brown, American Painting from the Armory Show to the Depression; Burroughs, THB; Cennini, The Book of the Art of Cennino Cennini; A Treatise on Painting; Chase, New York; Cowley, Exiles Return; Craven, Modern Art; Ellis, The Epic of New York City; Friedman, JP; Gruen, The Party’s Over Now; Johnson, Pioneer’s Progress; Kazin, Starting Out in the Thirties; Kramer, The Revenge of the Philistines; Keun, Abroad in America; Landgren, Years of Art; McKinzie, The New Deal for Artists; Museum of Fine Arts, Fairfield Porter; New York Panorama; OC&T, JP; Potter, To a Violent Grave; Robinson and Bletter, Skyscraper Style; Simkhovitch, Neighborhood; Solomon, JP; Still, Mirror for Gotham; The WPA Guide to California; The WPA Guide to New York City; Yee, The Silent Traveller.