Jackson Pollock

by Steven Naifeh

  Picasso’s drawings and gouaches: Composition with Minotaur (Curtain for Le 14 Juillet) of Romain Rolland, May 28, 1936; see also Minotaur, Horse, and Bird, Aug. 5, 1936. Rubin, “Pollock as Jungian Illustrator,” p. 110: “The Cretan Minotaur of the Theseus legend—half-man, half-bull—became Picasso’s ‘alter-ego.’” JP looking at Cahiers d’art: Busa; see also Rubin, “Pollock as Jungian Illustrator,” p. 110. “As symbols of Eros”; Picasso’s bull different from Jackson’s: Rubin, “Pollock as Jungian Illustrator,” p. 110: That Picasso’s bull also carried a political message—his bull was, in many of these images, a symbol of the hated Franco as well as of “irrational impulses and undirected libido”—did not make the image any the less powerful for Jackson.

  Le Maître: Dehner. Jackson integrating Picasso: Tillim, “The Alloway International,” p. 59: “Pollock had more success with Picasso than any of his contemporaries because his ambivalence ruled out any likelihood of complete subservience to any artistic authority.” Grotesque man-beasts: OC&T 71, I, p. 56; 77, I, p. 60; 79, I, p. 62; 80, I, p. 63. Terrorizing harpies: OC&T 68, I, p. 53; 508, III, p. 88. Bird: OC&T 72, I, pp. 56–57.

  24. THE WAGES OF GENIUS

  SOURCES

  Books, articles, manuscripts, document, and transcripts

  Ashton, The New York School; Ashton, Yes, but …; Barr, Matisse; Cohen, Notable American Women; Friedman, JP; Graham, System and Dialectics of Art; Henderson, Thresholds of Initiation; Josephson, Infidel in the Temple; C. G. Jung Institute, The Shaman from Elko; McElvaine, The Great Depression; McKinzie, The New Deal for Artists; FVOC, ed., The New Deal Art Projects; Peabody, The Common Sense of Drinking; Potter, To a Violent Grave; Rubin, ed., Pablo Picasso; Solomon, JP; Weld, Peggy; Wysuph, JP.

  Bruce Glaser, “JP: An Interview with LK,” Arts, Apr. 1967; Donald E. Gordon, “Department of Jungian Amplification, Part I: Pollock’s ‘Bird,’ or How Jung Did Not Offer Much Help in Myth-Making,” Art in America, Oct. 1980; Hayden Herrera, “John Graham: Modernist Turns Magus,” Arts, Oct. 1976; Gareth S. Hill, “J. L. H.: His Life and His Work,” in C. G. Jung Institute of San Francisco, The Shaman from Elko, (“J. L. H.”); “How a Disturbed Genius Talked to His Analyst with Art,” Medical World News, Feb. 5, 1971; Eila Kokkinen, “John Graham During the 1940s,” Arts, Nov. 1976; Carter Ratcliffe, “New York Today: Some Artists Comment,” Art in America, Sept.–Oct., 1977; William Rubin, “Pollock as Jungian Illustrator: The Limits of Psychological Criticism, Part I,” Art in America, Dec. 1979.

  David Hale, “Ex-Fresnan, artist Manuel Tolegian, dead at age 72,” Fresno Bee, Sept. 4, 1983.

  Joseph L. Henderson, “JP: A Psychological Commentary” (lecture); Ellen Gross Landau, “LK: A Study of Her Early Career (1926–1949)” (Ph.D. thesis), Newark: University of Delaware, 1981; FVOC, “The Genesis of JP: 1912 to 1943” (Ph.D. thesis), Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University, 1965.

  Chronology prepared by CCP for EFP, Feb. 1975, AAA.

  Reuben Kadish, int. by James T. Vallière, AAA; Manuel Tolegian, int. by Betty Hoag, Feb. 12, 1965, AAA.

  Interviews

  Lionel Abel; Paul Brach; Eda Bunce; Peter Busa; Dorothy Dehner; Violet de Laszlo; Ron Gorchov; Janet Hauck; Joseph Henderson; Reuben Kadish; Gerome Kamrowski; LK; Maria Piacenza Kron; Harold Lehman; ACM; George McNeil; Eleanor Ribak Mandelman; Sam Naifeh; CCP; Harry Rand; Miriam Schapiro; Nene Schardt; Rachel Scott; Gertrude Shibley; Hedda Sterne; Wally Strautin; Araks Tolegian; Steve Wheeler; Roger Wilcox; C. L. Wysuph.

  NOTES

  Charles at Michigan State: CCP. Sande looking for job: Schardt; Strautin. Schardt: “It was as if Sande was removing himself psychically in order not to interfere with Jackson’s development.” Strautin: “He didn’t want to be in a competition with Jackson.” Avant-garde: See Ashton, The New York School, p. 31; see also Glaser, “JP,” p. 36. Graham making introductions: Dehner, preface to Graham, p. xviii: “Graham was a generous friend in so many ways, generous with his knowledge, his praise, and his friends. It was through him that we met Avery, Stuart Davis, Gorky, Xceron, Friedrick Kiesler, and others in the early days of our friendship. He delighted in bringing people together who he thought might enjoy one another.” “[He] preferred”: Kokkinen, “John Graham During the 1940s,” p. 100.

  “The best sculptor”: Q. in Kokkinen, “John Graham During the 1940s,” p. 99. Dehner: Dehner. “Young outstanding American painters”: Q. in Allentuck, introduction to Graham, p. 12; listed in the holograph revisions of System and Dialectics. Sterne: Sterne. De Kooning: Gorchov. “One knew who was painting”: LK, q. in Glaser, “JP,” p. 36. Waldorf and Stewart’s: Kron; Landau, “LK,” p. 46. Ratner’s: At 138 Delancey Street; Brach; Schapiro. Romany Marie’s: At 55 Grove Street; Busa. Jumble Shop: Eighth and MacDougal streets; Ratcliffe, “New York Today,” p. 82. “Graham’s latest account”: Ashton, The New York School, p. 51. “The years”: Q. in Friedman, p. 69.

  Wilson, Edie, and Musick departing; patronizing German bar: Kadish. “Trying to get a foot”: Bunce. Schardt: Schardt. Ribak: Mandelman, who called him “Sloan’s favorite student.” “Went ape”: Hauck: “That’s why he liked us so much, because we liked his work.” At ease with Kadish: Kadish: From 1930 until September 1938, he came to New York “every chance I got”; moved there for good in 1944–45. JP was also at ease with Meert; Shibley.

  Graham’s erudition and memory: Wilcox. “A couple of ales”: Kadish. Visits to museums: Kadish; Lehman. On a visit to the Seligmann gallery, JP and Sande (to Kadish, n.d.) saw “about twelve El Grecos—most of which are heads but one crucifixion of outstanding quality.” “Flamelike vibrancy”; “a horse sniffing”: Kadish, int. by Vallière, n.d.: JP saw the work in reproduction in a book at the Frick Collection library. Visiting “Indian Art” exhibition: FVOC, “The Genesis of JP,” pp. 190–91; De Laszlo, q. in Gordon, “Department of Jungian Amplification,” p. 55. The exhibition lasted from January 22 to April 27, 1941. Graham accompanying him: Constance Graham, q. in Solomon, p. 102. Graham educating Jackson: Gorchov; Schardt. Klee and Kandinsky exhibitions: Michael Loew, q. in Potter, p. 61. Beckmann exhibition: Weld, p. 302. “[Jack’s] thinking”: SLM to CCP, July 1941. Awareness of Miró: The Gallery of Living Art had six paintings by Miró (FVOC, “The Genesis of JP,” p. 196), and MOMA held a major Miró retrospective, Nov. 19, 1941–Jan. 11, 1942. “He had an aesthetic”: Q. in Potter, p. 59. “Highly intelligent”: De Laszlo. “No interest in Cubism”: Wheeler.

  “Jack is doing”: SLM to CCP, May 1940. Date of Marot’s phone call: Henderson, “JP,” p. 22: The phone call was about a week prior to Marot’s death on June 3, 1940. Marot’s visit to studio: Scott. “‘I saw Jackson”’: Q. in Friedman, p. 43. Marot’s death: Cohen, p. 502. Binge: Henderson. Jackson destroying his own work: De Laszlo; Kadish. “A truly glorious wake”: Q. in Friedman, p. 43; Henderson (“JP,” p. 22); Henderson later claimed that JP “became” a chronic alcoholic several years after he left Henderson’s care; “JP,” p. 3. Henderson admitting ineffectiveness; “Thence forward [I] dwelt”: Q. in Friedman, p. 44. The Common Sense of Drinking: By R. R. Peabody, Boston: Little, Brown, 1931. JP noted the book on a drawing, OC&T 439, III, p. 46.

  “Discovered”: Wysuph, p. 17. “Human deprivation”: Henderson, p. 111: In the light of his analytic findings, Henderson revamped some of his earlier assessments of JP’s drawings—and discovered “the state of human deprivation” that still existed “on the personal level of his life,” with “pathetic limbs reaching up toward an unfeeling, abstract kind of feminine image most probably denot[ing] the problem which remained to be solved.” “Need for the ‘all-giving mother”’: Wysuph, p. 17. “Violent agitation”; “paralysis or withdrawal”: Q. in Wysuph, p. 14. Henderson repeatedly asserted (“How a Disturbed Genius Talked to His Analyst with Art,” p. 28) the schizophrenic nature of JP’s illness (his “schizoid tendency”) only to contradict himself repeatedly and say that he was not schizophrenic, although he was often close to it; “JP,” p. 14. Wysuph says Henderson told him that “Pollock was the m
ost schizoid artist he ever knew.” De Laszlo referred to his “rather schizoid isolation” but said she preferred “to speak of syndromes, meaning a group of symptoms, rather than of the illness”; q. in Potter, p. 66. She agrees that he was manic-depressive and says that, all the time they were acquainted, he was in a sustained depressive phase. Sam Naifeh, a colleague of Henderson’s, says the confusion of terminology is understandable: “It is easy to confuse manic-depression and schizophrenia in their acute forms, especially among alcoholics.” The difference is that the manic-depressive has the ability to rebound from manic and depressive episodes—“particularly if the person is supported and helped. If they are, then between episodes they are very normal. In the schizophrenic, the process is so constant that you sometimes find a deterioration of personality, and thus you see the low affect and the emptied-out human being.” Henderson cited drawings to prove each of the conditions he diagnosed; see Wysuph, pp. 14–15. For his “violent agitation,” see Wysuph, plates nos. 2 and 3; for his “state of withdrawal,” see Wysuph, plates nos. 16 and 64; for his “introversion,” see Wysuph, plate no. 10. William Rubin has addressed some of Henderson’s diagnoses based on an analysis of JP’s art. In particular, Rubin notes that the “ambiguity of line—that is, lines and shapes serving several functions” (“How a Disturbed Genius Talked to His Analyst with Art,” p. 15)—is a stylistic device that was the “stockin-trade of Miró and Masson in their hybrid personages and had also occasionally been employed by Picasso.” Two other stylistic elements—a “claustrophobic compaction of forms within a specified area” and a “thin white line surround[ing] an agitated rendering of confused human and animal forms”—are also typical stylistic elements used by artists whose sanity has not been called into question; “Pollock as Jungian Illustrator,” pp. 107–08.

  “Novice in a tribal initiation rite”: Q. in “How a Disturbed Genius Talked to His Analyst with Art,” p. 25. “Wild paroxysms”: Henderson, p. 110. “Ritual death”; “ritual rebirth”: Henderson, p. 108. “He had in fact suffered”: Henderson, p. 111. In Henderson’s view, until Marot died, JP had managed to keep an unbalanced personality in some sort of artificial balance by resorting to others to complement his own strong intuitive function. He had relied on Marot “for his need to give and receive feeling,” on Henderson himself “to help structure his thinking function toward achieving a more rational and objective view of his life and art,” and on Sande for carrying “much of his reality function”; Wysuph, p. 17. With Marot gone, his four functions were once again out of balance.

  “Wanted to paint”; “lashing out at competitors”: De Laszlo. Descending on Gorky’s apartment: Busa. Gorky’s height; “immensely strong”: Rand. “Nothing but shit”: Q. by Abel, recalling Gorky. Busa: JP said, “Why don’t you get some shit in your work?” Gorky threatening him: Abel, recalling Gorky. Tearing down Tolegian’s paintings: Araks Tolegian, recalling Manuel. Tolegian selling work to White House: Tolegian, int. by Hoag, Feb. 12, 1965; the painting was called Cheyenne and was purchased for one of the executive office buildings; see McKinzie, pp. 31–32, for description of White House purchase of thirty-two paintings from Corcoran exhibition. Ferargil Galleries: Between 1934 and 1941, Tolegian had a dozen one-man shows; Hale, “Ex-Fresnan, artist Manuel Tolegian, dead at age 72.” Jackson laying siege to Vandam Street building: Araks Tolegian, recalling Manuel.

  Time article on Goldstein: Kadish. Goldstein having little WPA success: Ashton, Yes, But …, p. 34. Goldstein winning competitions: Lehman, citing a P.M. magazine illustration contest. Mural for World’s Fair: McKinzie, p. 113. Maintaining America’s Skills winning prize: Ashton, Yes, But …, pp. 43–44: There was a rave review by Ruth Green Harris in the NYT. “I haven’t been up”: JP to CCP, n.d. Jackson recovering in studio: ACM. “I haven’t much to say”: JP to CCP, Summer 1940. “Hanging by a cord”: De Laszlo. “Hint of suicide”: De Laszlo, q. in Potter, p. 68. “Regrets, sorrow”: Q. in Herrera, “John Graham,” p. 104. Graham aware of Jackson’s problems: Sterne. “Freud was on the right track”: Q. by Gorchov. “Lay analyst”: Sterne; Wilcox. Graham rejecting title; “nothing but listening”: Gorchov, speaking of similar sessions with Graham: “I would talk for hours and he would do nothing but listen. Once he said, ‘This is the psychoanalytic method—just listening. Just meditating on what somebody says for a long time.’ Sometimes I would be talking and he’d say, ‘Do you mind if I just listen impassively?’ And we would go on like that sometimes for an hour or two.”

  Henderson’s dreams: Hill, “J. L. H.,” in C. G. Jung Institute, pp. 21–22: The dreams were repeated images of train trips back and forth across the continent and names of midwestern places. “Too stifling”: Hill, “J. L. H.,” in C. G. Jung Institute, p. 21. Henderson founding Jung Institute: Naifeh. Henderson’s departure not traumatic: Friedman, p. 43.

  De Laszlo in New York: De Laszlo. “It is frequently efficacious”: Henderson, p. 46: “One might assume that such a youth would need to work with a sympathetic older man with whom he might establish a positive homosexual transference and thereby win freedom from the regressive tendency to return to the mother for support. Yet this very good idea is frequently untenable because the feeling which could invest such a transference with the power of an initiation experience is still too bound in the original mother fixation. Only she or her surrogate can free him …” Henderson, p. 38: “Re-education in a psychological sense seems to require a recapitulation of the whole life history, a reactivation of the mother’s image together with the childhood pattern of behavior all the way back to infancy. From there it may stretch into the depths of the collective unconscious, where the return is to the archetypal rather than to the personal mother.” De Laszlo’s age: She was twelve years older than Jackson. Frequency of sessions; De Laszlo’s living arrangements: De Laszlo.

  Minimum of Jung from de Laszlo: De Laszlo: “Dr. Henderson’s approach was much more interpretive than mine.” Graham helping with De Laszlo’s fee: Sterne. Bringing Graham to session: Gordon, “Department of Jungian Amplification, Part I,” p. 51: Graham gave her a copy of “Primitive Art and Picasso” at this time.

  “Dear Sir”: De Laszlo to Examining Medical Officer, Selective Service System, Local Board 17, May 3, 1941. Examination at Beth Israel; statement from De Laszlo: On May 26, De Laszlo wrote: “Dear Sir, Further to my letter to you with reference to Jackson Pollock, Order no. 867, Pollock has reported to me that he has undergone a special psychiatric interview at Beth Israel Hospital on May 22. On that occasion he was told to obtain from me a statement to the effect that he has been admitted to the Westchester Division of the New York Hospital on June 11, 1938. I have had occasion to see a letter from the then attending M.O., Dr. Wall, in which it was stated that Pollock would be dismissed in September of that same year.

  “I can therefore testify that Jackson Pollock has been a resident free patient at the Westchester Division of the New York Hospital during four months in 1938. As far as I am aware he was admitted under the diagnosis of acute alcoholism.”

  Classified IV-F: De Laszlo to Examining Medical Officer, Selective Service System, Local Board 17, May 3, 1941. Pollock registered on Oct. 16, 1940. His order number was 867. For additional details, see FVOC, ”The Genesis of JP,” p. 75. “Rejected”; “neurotic”: Q. by Ahron Ben-Shmuel, int. by FVOC, Dec. 2, 1963, q. in FVOC, “The Genesis of JP,” p. 75. Reinstatement on WPA: FVOC, “The Genesis of JP,” p. 21: His salary was cut to $87.60 per month. Discovering Packard: Bunce.

  “Did you do this?”; “No. You did”: Q. in Rubin, ed., p. 350. Matisse in Nice: Barr, p. 257. Numbers of WPA works: McKinzie, p. 105. Furor over “communist infiltration”: See McKinzie, p. 165; see also Audrey McMahon, q. in FVOC, ed., p. 74. “Bohemian chiselers”: Q. in Josephson, p. 384. “Consumed the precious”: McKinzie, p. 117. “Ingrates”: McKinzie, p. 89; see Josephson, p. 384. “A winter of ups and downs”: SLM to CCP, Oct. 22, 1940. Loyalty oaths: The new law in question was the Hatch Act; see McElvaine, p. 308. Congressio
nal mandate concerning Communists: McKinzie, p. 165. “They’re dropping people”: SLM to CCP, Oct. 22, 1940. Stella moving to Tingley: MJP to CCP, Jan. 31, 1939: SMP to CCP, EFP, and Jeremy, 1939. She was still there in 1941; chronology prepared by CCP for EFP, Feb. 1975. Letter to Charles; “definite neurosis”; “depressive mania”; “self-destruction”; “since part of [Jackson’s] trouble”: SLM to CCP, July 1941. Date of meeting Lee again: ACM.

  25. LENA KRASSNER

  SOURCES

  Books, articles, manuscripts, lectures, and transcripts

  Ashton, The New York School; Chipp, ed., Theories of Modern Art; Feingold, Zion in America; Feldstein, The Land That I Show You; Friedman, JP; CG, Art and Culture; PG, Out of This Century; Howe, World of Our Fathers; Josephson, Infidel in the Temple; Kazin, Starting Out in the Thirties; McCullough, Brooklyn; Munro, Originals; Nemser, Art Talk; Potter, To a Violent Grave; Rose, LK; Solomon, JP; Weeks and Hayes, eds., Search for the Real and Other Essays; Whitechapel Gallery, LK.

  Lawrence Campbell, “Of Lilith and Lettuce,” Art News, Mar. 1968; Cynthia Goodman, “Hans Hofmann as a Teacher,” Arts, Apr. 1979; CG, “Influences of Matisse,” Art International, Nov. 1973; Elizabeth Pollett, “Hans Hofmann,” Arts, May 1957; Louise Elliott Rago, “We Interview LK,” School Arts, Sept. 1960; Barbara Rose, “LK and the Origins of Abstract Expressionism,” Arts, Feb. 1977; Emily Wasserman, “LK in Mid-Career,” Artforum, Mar. 1968.

  David Bourdon, “LK: I’m Embracing the Past,” Village Voice, Mar. 1977; Roberta Brandes Gratz, “Daily Closeup: After Pollock,” New York Post, Dec. 1, 1973.