Jackson Pollock

by Steven Naifeh

  Kerosene stove; “terrified”: LK. “A wooden barn”: Q. in Namuth, n.p. No clan gathering: SMP to FLP, MLP, and Jonathan, Nov. 30, 1951. “Santa shit”: Q. by Potter, p. 149. Potter blocking road: Potter, p. 149. Dating and timing of crash: The East Hampton Star article and all subsequent references have given the date as Saturday, December 29. However, a copy of the police log for the East Hampton Town Police (p. 571) indicates that the accident was reported by Patrolman Jacobs at “2000” (8:00 P.M.) on Friday, December 28, 1951. Description of crash: Police log, East Hampton Town Police, Dec. 28, 1951, p. 571. “His dreamboat”: Potter, p. 149.

  40. MIRACLE CURES

  SOURCES

  Books, articles, and transcripts

  Ashton, The New York School; THB, An Artist in America; Burroughs, THB; Epstein and Barlow, East Hampton; Fox and Lyon, Alcoholism; Friedman, JP; Gruen, The Party’s Over Now; Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, JP; McChesney, A Period of Exploration; Myers, Tracking the Marvelous; Namuth, Pollock Painting; Nemser, Art Talk; OC&T, JP; O’Neill, ed., Clyfford Still; Potter, To a Violent Grave; Rattray, The South Fork; Rodman, Conversations with Artists; Rosenberg, Barnett Newman; Solomon, JP; Tabak, But Not for Love.

  E. A. Carmean, “The Church Project: Pollock’s Passion Themes,” Art in America, Summer 1982; Rosalind Constable, “The Betty Parsons Collection,” Art News, Mar. 1968; DP&G, “Who Was JP?” Art in America, May–June 1967; J[ames] F[itzsimmons], “Fifty-Seventh Street in Review,” Art Digest, Dec. 15, 1951; Ruth Fox, “The Alcoholic Spouse,” in Eisenstein, ed., Neurotic Interaction in Marriage; Ruth Fox, “Treatment of Chronic Alcoholism,” in Masserman, ed., Current Psychiatric Therapies; Stanley P. Friedman, “Last Years of a Tormented Genius,” New York Magazine, Oct. 29, 1973; CG, “Art Chronicle: Feeling Is All,” Partisan Review, Jan.–Feb. 1952; F[airfield] P[orter], “Reviews and Previews,” Art News, Dec. 1951, p. 48; Kenneth B. Sawyer, “U.S. Collectors of Modern Art 3: Alfonso Ossorio,” Studio International, Mar. 1965; Calvin Tomkins, “A Keeper of the Treasure,” New Yorker, June 9, 1975; Judith Wolfe, “Jungian Aspects of JP’s Imagery,” Artforum, Nov. 1972.

  E. A. Carmean, “The Puzzle of Pollock’s Paintings,” Washington Post, Mar. 21, 1982; Howard Devree, “By Contemporaries,” NYT, Dec. 2, 1951; Vivien Raynor, “JP—‘He Broke the Ice,’” NYT Magazine, Apr. 2, 1967.

  CG, int. by James T. Vallière, Mar. 20, 1968, AAA; Elwyn Harris, int. by Kathleen Shorthall for Life, Nov. 9, 1959, Time/Life Archives; Barnett Newman, int. by Shorthall for Life, Nov. 9, 1959, Time/Life Archives; Alfonso Ossorio, int. by Forrest Selvig, Nov. 19, 1968, AAA; Alfonso Ossorio, int. by Shorthall for Life, Nov. 9, 1959, Time/Life Archives; Betty Parsons, int. by Shorthall for Life, Nov. 9, 1959, Time/Life Archives.

  Interviews

  Emile de Antonio; Grace Borgenicht; Paul Brach; Jeremy Capillé; Nicholas Carone; Leo Castelli; Cynthia Cole; John Cole; Ted Dragon; Herbert Ferber; Joe Glasco; E. C. Goossen; CG; Edys Hunter; Harry Jackson; Mary Jackson; Sidney Janis; Buffie Johnson; Reuben Kadish; Gerome Kamrowski; LK; John Lee; John Little; Cile Downs Lord; Conrad Marca-Relli; Maria-Gaetana Matisse; George Mercer; John Bernard Myers; Annalee Newman (int. by David Peretz); Alfonso Ossorio; Vita Peterson; FLP; Becky Reis; Miriam Schapiro; Jon Schueler; Jim Shepperd; Jane Smith; Eloise Spaeth; Ronald Stein; Ruth Stein; Margot Stewart; Catherine Viviano; Steve Wheeler; Roger Wilcox; Betsy Zogbaum.

  NOTES

  Parsons meeting with artists: Tomkins, “A Keeper of the Treasure,” p. 54: Parsons says the meeting took place at her studio apartment at 143 East Fortieth Street. Still: Ossorio (q. in Potter, p. 147) denies that Still attended the meeting, but in two other interviews, one with the authors and one with Shorthall, Nov. 9, 1959, he says Still was there. Also, Parsons (in Tomkins, “A Keeper of the Treasure,” p. 52) says that Still was there. Reinhardt: Hunter. Jackson sore from accident: See Potter, p. 150. “Most famous dealer”: Tomkins, “A Keeper of the Treasure,” p. 54. “If you don’t”: Q. by Ossorio. “These powerhouses”: Ossorio. “Sorry”: Q. by Ossorio. “It was her gallery”: Int. by Shorthall, Nov. 9, 1959. Parsons committed to women: Ossorio: Among those women were Agnes Martin, Anne Ryan, and Chryssa.

  “Officious meddling”: LK. Lost paintings: Number 25, 1950, sent to Hilltop Theatre Art Room in Lutherville, Maryland, and almost lost; see Potter, p. 143. Put off patrons: There is good reason to believe that Parsons was the reason the mural commission from the AAA never came off. JP to Ossorio and Dragon about the commission in August 1951: “The mural (AAA) isn’t definitely out—but is a matter of waiting (how long I don’t know) and it involves other things and people too damned involved to try and explain in a letter.” Ossorio’s show given little attention: Potter, p. 146. Sales: Solomon, p. 225. “A newer and loftier”: CG, “Art Chronicle,” p. 102. “Learned to draw”: CG. “Gained immeasurably”: Devree, “By Contemporaries.” “Most ambitious”: F[itzsimmons], “Fifty-Seventh Street in Review,” p. 19; see also P[orter], “Reviews and Previews,” p. 48, for a generally positive review. Work on “The Tonight Show”: See OC&T 225, II, p. 48; OC&T are uncertain about the date of the appearance, giving it as “1952?” “Surprised to hear”: Isaacs to JP, Feb. 22, 1952. “Magnificent catalogue”: Davis to LK and JP, Dec. 4, 1951.

  “Dear Jack”: Parsons to JP, Jan. 31, 1952. “Keep an open mind”: Friedman, p. 193. Omitting Parsons from catalogue: Ossorio to LK and JP, Mar. 6, 1952: “I hope you like the catalogue. I left B.P. off as you told me to.” Parsons claiming no resentment: Ferber. “Hurt”; “disappointment”: Q. in Gruen, p. 238. “It has nothing”: Q. by LK in Nemser, p. 94. Visit to Matisse’s gallery: Viviano; 41 East Fifty-seventh. “[Joe] asked Viviano”: JP to Ossorio and Dragon, June 7, 1951. “Didn’t show Americans”: Q. by Viviano. MacIver, Roszak, and Riopelle at Matisse: Myers. “What do you think”: Q. by Myers. Duchamp shrugging shoulders: Myers.

  Lucifer: OC&T 185, I, pp. 186–87. Number 7, 1950: OC&T 272, II, p. 96. Jackson gullible: Dragon: “Mark got Jackson more and more in his power.” “Confusing arrangement”: Q. by Barnett Newman, int. by Shorthall, Nov. 9, 1959. “Umbrella agent”: Ossorio. “Precious fairies”: THB, p. 265. “Museum boys”: Q. in Burroughs, p. 164. “Pollock was caught”: Int. by Shorthall, Nov. 9, 1959. “Salesman”: Ossorio. Jackson arguing for Mark; “I used to be”; “Who would pay”: Newman, int. by Shorthall, Nov. 9, 1959.

  “Handling [his] own”: Isaacs to JP, Feb. 22, 1952, in response to JP’s phone call of February 20. “Since we now”: Isaacs to JP, Feb. 22, 1952. Ossorio marketing Jackson’s work: Ossorio: He had persuaded his brother Robert to buy several works. Return to U.S.: Dragon. Meeting with Sweeney and Lavannoux: Ossorio, int. by Selvig, Nov. 19, 1968. Constable: Carmean, “The Church Project,” p. 122. Spaeths: Spaeth. “Suspended hexagons”; “honeycomb”: Ossorio, int. by Selvig, Nov. 19, 1968. Windows replacing walls: Tony Smith, q. in Carmean, “The Puzzle of Pollock’s Paintings.” Meeting in MacDougal Alley: Friedman, pp. 203–04. “Incomprehension”; “Christian ethos”; “not one iota”; “stomped out”: Ossorio, int. by Selvig, Nov. 19, 1968.

  Ossorio arranging French show: Ossorio. “I am both happy”: Tapié to JP, Feb. 29, 1952. Furious at Namuth: JP to Ossorio and Dragon, Aug. 1951: “I would give him hell except he is terribly ill from a kidney operation.” Jackson impressed by catalogue: JP to Ossorio, Mar. 30, 1952. Ossorio’s Introduction translated: Friedman, p. 191. “Couldn’t do too well”: JP to Ossorio, Mar. 30, 1952. “The exhibition”; five of fifteen sold: Ossorio to JP, n.d. “Out of this world”: JP to Ossorio, Mar. 30, 1952.

  “The newspapers”: Ossorio to JP, n.d. Really only two sales: Friedman, pp. 191–92. There is some disagreement about prices. Friedman gives no prices; the ones quoted are from Ossorio’s letter to JP at the time; a note in JP’s files, dated Jan. 13, 1952, gives the prices as $750 and $500 respectively. Not enough space: Tapié to JP, Feb. 29, 1952. Tapié bought two works at discount: Ossorio to JP, n.d. Expenses of show: See Friedman, p. 192. Import laws: Ossorio’s Byzantine solut
ion (Ossorio to JP, n.d.) was “to have the crates sent to Switzerland, the pictures to be paid for in Swiss francs to be transferred to New York and the remaining paintings shipped in bond across France sealed in their crates and on to America.” Number 27, 1950: OC&T 271, II, pp. 94–95. Special, deep discount: Ossorio to JP, n.d.: Pollak (the buyer) wanted both paintings for $2,700. Jackson never saw money: FVOC to E. V. Thaw, July 22, 1972. “Misplaced”: Ossorio. “My experience”; “this getting settled”: JP to Ossorio, Mar. 30, 1952. Continued treatment: Dragon; Ossorio.

  MOMA’s “15 Americans”: Apr. 9–July 27, 1952. Still no dealer: CCP to SMP, Apr. 5, 1952. “Good show”: Q. by LK, int. by Friedman, in Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, n.p. We know it was Kootz from Ossorio, q. in DP&G, ‘Who Was JP?” p. 58. “I’m better”: Q. in Solomon, p. 173, citing interview with Joyce Kootz. “Rusty iron”; “drunkard”: Q. by Ferber. Trying Egan’s: Harry Jackson; Stewart for location. De Kooning and Kline at Egan’s: Mary Jackson of the Janis Gallery: De Kooning didn’t begin to show with Janis until the “Man and Wife” show of 1949. Egan a drinker: Parsons, q. in Gruen, p. 240. Description of Egan’s gallery: Stewart. “Ten years earlier”; “come back”: Q. by Harry Jackson. “Ton of bricks”: Myers to JP, Feb. 3, 1952. “For all or part”: Ossorio to JP, n.d. Lewenthal courting him; “might be better”: JP to Ossorio and Dragon, June 7, 1951. Driving Borgenicht around: Borgenicht, q. in Potter, p. 153. “A Department store”: JP to Ossorio and Dragon, June 7, 1951. Parsons borrowing $5,000: Constable, “The Betty Parsons Collection,” p. 59. At $200 a month: Grant Mark to JP, Dec. 4, 1952. Considering textiles: Little. Teaching job: Julien Levy, q. in Potter, p. 109. Asking Potter for work: Potter, p. 127. Linoleum; “exhausted”: Goosen. “Talking about galleries”: Q. by Kamrowski.

  “Pollock is available”: Q. by Janis. “Don’t you think”: Q. in Gruen, p. 247. “Sidney”: Q. by Janis, q. in Gruen, p. 246; see also Friedman, p. 193. “Sharp business sense”: Janis. “Always drunk”: Janis, q. by Castelli. Gallery started in 1948: Janis. “Only the best”; “his collection”: Gruen, p. 243. Zogbaum: “He never made any pretenses about taking on any artist who wasn’t recognized.” “[He] came in”: Janis, q. in Gruen, p. 247. Janis’s artists: Mary Jackson. Castelli’s help: Brach. De Kooning deserting Egan: Castelli has a clear memory that de Kooning’s move to Janis predated JP’s. Paris reviews: Tapié to JP, Feb. 29, 1952. Janis a businessman: De Antonio. Janis willing to spend: Parsons, q. in Potter, p. 129. Jackson not caring for Janis: Harry Jackson; Little. Jackson resenting interview: Harry Jackson. “Goddamn sons of bitches”; “who the fuck”: Q. by Harry Jackson. “This is the guy”: Q. by Potter, p. 157. De Antonio: Castelli claims to have put JP together with Janis; see Potter, p. 138. But De Antonio, based on interviews with Janis, believes such claims are unfounded. Almost setting house on fire: Wilcox. Gribitz: Raphael Gribitz, q. in Potter, p. 218. Storming into Levy’s studio: Ossorio. “Painters should paint”: Q. by Levy, in Potter, p. 109; see also Friedman, p. 90. Dreading apologies: Raphael Gribitz, q. in Potter, p. 218. “Oh, God”: Psychoanalyst, q. by Miller, q. in Potter, p. 157. Unable to pay bills: Borgenicht, q. in Potter, p. 153.

  “Commitment to a life”: Fox, “Treatment of Chronic Alcoholism,” p. 111. Objecting to criticism of Mark: Friedman, p. 172. Meeting his match: Wolfe, “Jungian Aspects of JP’s Imagery,” p. 65. Label of alcoholic: Marca-Relli: “Jackson would say, ‘I don’t drink because I’m an alcoholic. I drink because I have such depression. I’ve got to fight the depression.’” “Alcoholic arrogance”: Fox, “The Alcoholic Spouse,” p. 155. “Maneuvers”; “to seem to deserve”: Fox and Lyon, p. 83. “Ingratiating”; “hostile”: Fox, ”The Alcoholic Spouse,” p. 155. Fear of desertion: Fox and Lyon, p. 86. “Egocentricity”; “loving another”: Fox, “The Alcoholic Spouse,” p. 155. “Desire for vengeance”: Fox, “The Alcoholic Spouse,” p. 156. Including Lee in treatment; sympathizing with Lee’s ordeal: Fox, “The Alcoholic Spouse,” p. 155. “Knowing he was an alcoholic”: Fox, “The Alcoholic Spouse,” p. 160: Fox notes the “uncanny ability of the alcoholic to seek in marriage an equally immature and needful person.” Fox’s description of the relationship: Fox and Lyon, pp. 185–86.

  “Personality disturbances”; “even more serious”; “equally in need”: Fox, “The Alcoholic Spouse,” p. 159. “To dominate”; “a threat”; “she derive[d] pleasure”: Fox and Lyon, p. 183. “Beat her up”; “fear of [losing] her own”; “more violent”; “from some immediate”: Fox and Lyon, p. 186. “Watched his diet”: Tabak, p. 48. Vashtis: CG; Little; Parsons, q. in DP&G, “Who Was JP?” p. 55; Friedman, p. 181. We were unable to ascertain the first name of N. Vashti. “The universal energy”: Q. by Potter, p. 154. “The reality”: Q. by Raphael Gribitz, q. in Potter, p. 115. The Prophet; Beasts, Men and Gods; captivated by Osindowsky: Wilcox. “Goddamn it”: Q. by Raphael Gribitz, q. in Potter, p. 115. Jackson quizzing Smith: Jane Smith. Converting to Catholicism: Friedman, p. 203; see also Ossorio. McCoys Catholic: Ossorio.

  Newman as comic figure: Myers, p. 93. Affection but not respect: Ferber; CG. Beginning to paint: Newman, int. by Shorthall, Nov. 9, 1959. Not a true artist: Adolph Gottlieb, q. in Gruen, pp. 258–59: Barney “was never an artist. If he became an artist, he became a manufactured artist. He was something of a fake—full of dialectics that had nothing to do with anything.” Greenberg was one of the first to take Newman seriously. Sandler, p. 13 (citing CG, “Art Chronicle,” pp. 100–01): “In 1952 Greenberg came to the conclusion that any artist as widely disparaged as Newman could not be all bad.” Newman’s position derived from Parsons: Kamrowski. “Aesthetic philosophy”: Myers, p. 93. Not included in Miller’s show; removing paintings from Parsons and vowing not to show: Tomkins, “A Keeper of the Treasure,” p. 54. “It didn’t matter”; only act of painting mattered: CG. “The artist’s lot”: Goosen.

  Newman wrestling: Wilcox. Going to movies: Newman, int. by Shorthall, Nov. 9, 1959: The fights themselves were too expensive. Incessant talk: Newman, int. by Shorthall, Nov. 9, 1959. Retrieved Jackson from binges; never telling Jackson to stop drinking: Annalee Newman, int. by David Peretz. Admiring Jackson’s machismo: Newman, int. by Shorthall, Nov. 9, 1959, called him ”very manly.” “More mature”: Int. by Shorthall, Nov. 9, 1959. “Authentic flair”: Myers, p. 93. Size: Wilcox. Erudition: Kadish. Treatment of wife: Edys Hunter. Sharing Al Capone’s tailor: Myers, p. 93.

  “The largeness”; “a contained thing”; “the fight against”: Newman, int. by Shorthall, Nov. 9, 1959. “Geometry (perfection)”: Newman, q. in Rosenberg, p. 41. “The taste for”: Newman, q. in Rosenberg, p. 24. “Anyone can construct”: Newman, int. by Shorthall, Nov. 9, 1959. Difficulty drawing from life: CG. “Transcendental self”: Rosenberg, p. 51. “Experienced moment[s]”: Newman, q, in Rosenberg, p. 75. Rosenberg, p. 62: These were embodiments of the Jewish mystical concept of Makom or Place—“the habitation of the invisible God and a synonym of his being.” “Clues”: Newman, q. in Rosenberg, p. 27. “Ceremonial performance”: Rosenberg, p. 30. “A mystic situation”: Newman, int. by Shorthall, Nov. 9, 1959. “I don’t give a damn”: Q. by Wilcox.

  “Any fool”; “matter of conscience”: Q. in Ashton, p. 34. “Can make a picture”: Q. in McChesney, p. 46. War of words: See O’Neill, ed., p. 27. Sacrificing friendships: In a letter to Mark Rothko, dated Apr. 20, 1949 (q. in O’Neill, ed., pp. 26–27), for example, he bragged that “[Andrew] Ritchie does not like me anymore!” “The contemporary”; “a totalitarian”: Q. in O’Neill, ed., p. 180. “Controlled by merchants”: Q. by Carone. “The butchers”: Still to Mark Rothko, Apr. 20, 1949, q. in O’Neill, ed., pp. 26–27. “The scholar”: Still to a friend, July 1950, q. in O’Neill, ed., p. 29. “An exercise”; “the most contemptible”: Q. by Still, q. in O’Neill, ed., p. 191. Claims to be first Abstract Expressionist: CG. Reply to Parsons: Tomkins, “A Keeper of the Treasure,” p. 54. “The lonely pioneer”: Ashton, p. 34. “Changed the nature”: Q. by JP, q. in Rodman, p. 84. “Your show”: Still to JP, Sept. 14
, 1952. “Salon raconteur”: Still to Rosenberg, Sept. 14, 1952. We were unable to find the article referred to by Still. He might have been referring to Rosenberg’s “American Action Painters,” which appeared in the December issue of Art News. “Two paragraphs”: Still to JP, Sept. 14, 1952.

  “Handle himself”; “that guy’s”: JP, q. by Marca-Relli. But Wilcox: “I can remember Jackson saying that his name is very appropriate to his art. There’s not much happening in it.” “Jackson succumbed”: Int. by Vallière, Mar. 20, 1968. Baseball: Solomon, p. 176. Also for the benefit of Tony Smith, who, says Jane Smith, was crazy about baseball. “Goddamn, Rita”: Q. by Harry Jackson. “Jack, I’m not”: Rita Benton, q. by Harry Jackson. Elm Tree Inn story: Harry Jackson. “Tell me”: Q. by Harry Jackson. Napeague strip: Epstein and Barlow, p. 212. Indian Field: Rattray, p. 132. Walking last few feet: Jackson, q. in Potter, p. 142.