Jackson Pollock

by Steven Naifeh

  Jackson’s annoyance: Marca-Relli. “Rosenberg’s piece on me”: Q. by Friedman. “How stupid”: Q. by Marca-Relli. “Appalled”: Lee later said JP was “appalled”; see Rubin, “Pollock as Jungian Illustrator,” p. 91 n. 56. Lee still raging; “announced his liking”: O’Doherty, p. 109. De Kooning’s defense: Rose, “JP et l’Art Américain,” p. 19. “New heights”: O’Doherty, p. 109. De Kooning’s retreat: LK; Rose, “JP et l’Art Américain,” p. 19. “Betraying her”: LK, q. by Little. Lee’s grievances against de Kooning: Little. “Adored”: May Rosenberg. “The greatest”: LK, q. by May Rosenberg. Lee sitting in de Kooning’s lap: LK. Bultman dragging Lee to shower: Bultman; LK; Landau. De Kooning accused of encouraging Jackson to drink: Wilcox. De Kooning accused of sabotage: May Rosenberg. “Refusing to acknowledge”: LK, q. by Pavia. Lee hating Elaine de Kooning: Pavia; Stolbach. Description of Elaine: Slivka; Gruen, p. 207. Suspicion that Elaine influenced Hess: Friedman. Asking Hess to write book: Friedman, p. 148.

  Jackson and de Kooning: Resnick: “Jackson never cared for anybody really.” Abel’s visit: Abel is not sure of the date; he thinks it was “‘46, ‘47, something like that,” but 1948 was the first summer that de Kooning spent in Springs. Feelings of generosity: CG, int. by Vallière, Mar. 20, 1968. Jackson “bragged” to Harry Jackson: Jackson. “One of the top”: JP told Kadish that “de Kooning has a lot on the ball, except that he never finishes a painting.” “Pollock’s taste”: Seiberling, int. with JP, July 18, 1949.

  Rosenberg, center of attention: Aurthur, “Hitting the Boiling Point,” p. 205: Rosenberg was “always the dominant figure on the beach, the center of a swirling group of young painters and radical writers.” “Saying things”: Esteban Vicente. “Half-assed”: Ward. “Let me think”: Q. by Ward. Lee catalyst for alliance: Pavia: Krasner was constantly expanding her list of potential enemies: “Lee hated women, all women. And even among men, she only liked nonartists. The longer you had known Jackson, the worse it was.” “Elbowed out”: Kadish. “Stalinists”: Q. by Kadish. “Life-and-death” passion; “Lady Macbeth”; “gladly stab”; “stab or choke”: Pavia. De Kooning’s art unrelated to “action painting”: See O’Doherty, pp. 109–10: “In Rosenberg’s discussion of Pollock, he seems to suffer irritation that the actor he has cast to play the leading role is not available, despite his denial, not unusual in such cases, that he wanted Pollock for the part.” Rosenberg on de Kooning’s art: Friedman, p. 146. “Would sit”: Q. in Potter, p. 161; she also admitted that JP’s method was more “kinetic.” Beaux Arts tradition: O’Doherty, p. 109. Admiration for Remington: Hempstead.

  Story of Rosenberg’s theft: Bryan Robertson, cited in Rosenberg, “The Search for JP,” p. 60; also CG, int. by Shorthall, Nov. 9, 1959. We can assume that Krasner was the source of both of these accounts. Acknowledging conversation: Rosenberg, “The Search for JP,” p. 60. “Had put the idea”: Abel. Rosenberg denying debt: See Rosenberg, “The Search for JP,” p. 60. “Painting like a monkey”: Harold Rosenberg, q. by Carone. “Craving recognition”; “pushing Jackson”: Marca-Relli. “Wanting to destroy”: May Rosenberg. “Paranoid”; “psychotic”; “a madwoman”: Q. by Ernestine Lassaw. “An aggravated case”: Tabak, p. 46.

  Attacks on Club: Pavia. Maligning Zogbaum: Vivas. See also Tabak, p. 46. “An Instant object”: Gruen, p. 172; see also Marca-Relli; Myers, p. 69. “This is for artists”: Q. by Ward. Intellectuals around Rosenberg: Sandler. Masculinity of the phrase: Fiedler, who thought artists were attracted to its aggressive, masculine undertones. Antihistorical, pro-American: O’Doherty, p. 109. Dense style: O’Doherty, p. 109: “densely poetic mode of art writing.” “Bloody concierge”: Bluhm. “Telling them what”: Johnson. He had even tried it with de Kooning, who had summarily thrown him out of his house; see de Kooning, q. in Potter, p. 183. Greenberg’s denial: CG. Dismissing Rivers: Fleiss. Pavia, q. in Gruen, p. 270: Greenberg “put a railroad track in the middle of every gallery. He always said, this guy’s good and this guy’s bad; the right side is good and the left side is bad.” The air soon filled with rumors of how Greenberg had influenced those he favored, especially David Smith and JP. Smith’s wife, Dehner, would later refer to the sculptor’s Cubi series as his “Greenberg series.” “Juried a show”: Resnick, q. by Marca-Relli.

  Washing glasses: Ibram Lassaw. Sweeping up: Pavia, q. in Gruen, p. 272: Pavia called him “the most faithful [member] of all.” “Centered in the studios”: Sandler, p. 37. “Haute bourgeois”; Still’s isolation; de Kooning’s availability: Brach. Intensity: Sandler. “Like a million bucks”: Q. by Ward. “Through the ranks”: Ernestine Lassaw. “What the hell”: Q. by Budd. Carone: “You couldn’t copy Jackson’s work. You had to get into it, you had to recreate the same dialectical process of working with the unconscious.” Only on rare occasions could JP articulate his ideas in ways that were helpful to younger artists. Hartigan: “He came to my studio one time and saw a copy of the Artists’ Handbook and told me to “Toss it out the window.” “De Kooning provided”: Q. by Sandler. “In the line”: Carone. “The young artists”: Q. by friend, name withheld by request. “Civil war”: Pavia. “Only one camp”: Q. by Sandler.

  “Hurt”: Carone. “Bitter”: Little. “You’re the greatest”; “No, Bill”: Q. by Sidney Geist, q. in Solomon, p. 241. De Kooning show: Mary Jackson. “The turbulence”; “could walk through”; “on the prow”: Elaine de Kooning, q. in Pepper, “The Indomitable Bill de Kooning,” p. 70. “Acts of genius”: Q. by May Rosenberg. De Kooning purchased by MOMA: Woman I. “The final direction”: Ashton, New York School, p. 213. Time’s approval: “Big City Dames,” p. 80; see Ashton, New York School, p. 213. “Out of hand”: Mercer. “Bill, you betrayed”: Q. by Marca-Relli. “Well, what”: Q. by Marca-Relli. Stalking out of bar: Mercer. Castelli enclave: Liss, “Memories of Bonac Painters.” Motherwell: Motherwell, q. in Potter, p. 185. “Like a scout”: May Rosenberg. “Hot and sticky”; festive dinners: Liss, “Memories of Bonac Painters.”

  Reshingling house: JP to Sidney Janis, Nov. 1953. Change in palette: See editors’ note, OC&T II, p. 199: The paintings from 1953 “recapitulate and redefine his earlier styles and images.” Ocean Greyness: OC&T 369, II, pp. 204–05. Invoked images: See Birth c. 1938–41, OC&T 77, I, p. 60; Composition with Masked Forms, 1941, OC&T 79, I, p. 62; White Horizontal, c. 1938–41, OC&T 82, I, p. 65. Greyed Rainbow: OC&T 370, II, pp. 206–07.

  Janis visit: Janis. “Talked angrily”: Motherwell, q. in “JP: An Artists’ Symposium, Part I,” p. 30. Safe at The Creeks: Glasco. “Just so he could relax”: Ossorio. “Oh, no”; “Well, play”: Q. by Dragon. “Out of your mind”: Q. by Marca-Relli. “Let me help”: Q. by Marca-Relli. “Oh, God”: Marca-Relli. “She didn’t go”: Q. by Marca-Relli. “Felt like a heel”; “from then on”: Marca-Relli. Mowing incident: Marca-Relli. Lee refusing to open door: May Rosenberg. Denying knowledge of whereabouts: Pavia; May Rosenberg. “The New York gangsters”: Q. by Pavia. Visits stopping: May Rosenberg. “Looking for de Kooning”: Castelli. Ileana Castelli hiding things: Castelli, q. in Potter, p. 184. Almost destroying Rivers sculpture: Castelli, q. in Potter, p. 184; see Rivers, q. in “JP: An Artists’ Symposium, Part I,” p. 33. It is widely believed that JP destroyed the sculpture, a legend that Castelli dismissed by noting that “it was made out of cement” “He got black”: Q. in Potter, p. 204. “Ah, shit, Harry”: Q. by Harry Jackson. “Who the fuck”; “study painting”: Harry Jackson.

  Scenic tour for Smiths: Tony Smith, q. in DP&G, “Who was JP?” p. 53. Offer of Blue Poles; “it was too big”: Jane Smith. Black-and-white portrait: Number 7, 1952, OC&T 354, II, pp. 176–77. The next day, as the Smiths were getting into their car to begin the journey home, JP said, “Take your painting.” But Lee said, “Not now, Jackson, not now.” Jane Smith never did get her portrait, which eventually was acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. “Perverse sexuality”: Tony Smith, q. in DP&G, “Who Was JP?” p. 53. Smith also spread the rumor (q. by Johnson) that JP had been sitting and drinking with a male
friend, one who was not actively homosexual. When they reached the “reeling stage, someone suggested doing something, and JP said, ‘Oh, hell, let’s go home and fuck.’” Passes: Wilcox: “Tony was a homosexual. He tried to make passes at Jackson a couple of times—at least that’s what Jackson thought it was.” In support of Smith’s homosexual or bisexual inclinations: Bultman; Johnson; Myers. Where before the incident Smith could do no wrong, afterward he could do no right. JP even ridiculed the cantilevered house Smith designed for Theodoros Stamos on the North Fork: “Can you imagine a guy being so stupid to build a house that way?” he said to Wilcox. Smith, q. in DP&G, “Who Was JP?” p. 53: “There were real conflicts, partly due to the manner in which [Jackson] kept things apart in his mind.” This statement must be read in light of Smith’s statement to Friedman (p. 89) that “Jackson was puritanical. I’ve never known anyone who was more—I mean stern. On the other hand, I have heard that he was fascinated by all sorts of things which he considered perverse.” Shepperd: “I was talking with Tony once, and he mentioned out of the blue that he thought Jackson was not homosexual, that, if anything, he was impotent rather than homosexual. The comment wasn’t related to anything; he just sort of threw it out.”

  Tomlin admiring Lee’s work: Nemser, p. 90. Pitching house to Tomlin: Slivka, who had turned down JP’s suggestion that he buy the house. “Animated conversation”: Marca-Relli. Jackson infuriated: Cavallon. “Until the house shook”: LK; see also, Friedman, p. 88. Tomlin’s heart attack: Cavallon. Tomlin looking worse: Marca-Relli. “Frozen”; “‘we better get out”; Tomlin’s death: Cavallon. “That night”; “Gee”: Q. by Cavallon. “What do you want”: Q. by Marca-Relli. “Final authority”: Hempstead. “Crisis of realization”; Hubbard breaking off with Mark: Ossorio. Talk of suicide: Wilcox. Seeking out Barker: Susan Barker says her husband’s cure for JP’s persistent headaches was to “Stop drinking the night before.” Barker renting nearby; not formal patient: Susan Barker. “No damn good”; “what do you”: Q. by Wayne Barker, q. in Potter, pp. 179–80. “Way of sizing you up”: Wayne Barker, q. in Potter, p. 180.

  42. ABANDONED

  SOURCES

  Books, articles, and transcripts

  Friedman, JP; Henderson, Thresholds of Initiation; Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, JP: Black and White; Namuth, Pollock Painting; FVOC, JP: The Black Pourings; OC&T, JP; O’Hara, JP; Potter, To a Violent Grave; Rose, LK; Sandler, New York School; Solomon, JP.

  Robert Alan Aurthur, “Hitting the Boiling Point, Freakwise, at East Hampton,” Esquire, June 1972; [Robert M. Coates], “The Art Galleries, American and International,” New Yorker, Feb. 20, 1954; S. Lane Faison, Jr., ”Ten Paintings by JP,” Nation, Feb. 20, 1954; James Fitzsimmons, “Art,” Arts & Architecture, Mar. 1954; Christopher E. Fremantle, “New York Commentary,” Studio, June 1954; B. H. Friedman, “An Interview with Lee Krasner Pollock,” in Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, JP: Black and White, n.p.; CG, “‘American-Type’ Painting,” Partisan Review, Spring 1955; T[homas] B. H[ess], “Reviews and Previews,” Art News, Mar. 1954; “JP: An Artists’ Symposium, Part I,” Art News, Apr. 1967; James T. Vallière, “Daniel T. Miller,” Provincetown Review, Fall 1968; Amei Wallach, “Krasner’s Triumph,” Vogue, Nov. 1983.

  Emily Genauer, “Art and Artists: Reappraisal of the Avant-Garde,” New York Herald Tribune, Feb. 7, 1954; “Hurricane Rips Eastern Seaboard; No Lives Lost Here,” East Hampton Star, Nov. 2, 1954; “JP Injured,” East Hampton Star, Sept. 2, 1954; Joseph Liss, “Memories of Bonac Painters,” East Hampton Star, Aug. 18, 1983.

  CG, int. by Kathleen Shorthall, for Life, Nov. 9, 1959, Time/Life Archives; CG, int. by James T. Vallière, Mar. 20, 1968, AAA.

  Interviews

  Lionel Abel; Ethel Baziotes; Peter Blake; Charles Boultenhouse; Paul Brach; Ernest Briggs; Charlotte Park Brooks; James Brooks; David Budd; Fritz Bultman; Adele Callaway; Jeremy Capillé; Nicholas Carone; Herman Cherry; Cynthia Cole; John Cole; Oscar Collier; Edward Cook; Karen Del Pilar; B. H. Friedman; Ron Gorchov; Jane Graves; CG; Barbara Hale; Budd Hopkins; Merle Hubbard; Ted Hults; Edys Hunter; Sam Hunter; Sidney Janis; Paul Jenkins; Reuben Kadish; Ruth Kligman; Joe LeSueur; Joe Liss; Millie Liss; John Little; Cile Downs Lord; Sheridan Lord (confirmation only); John Marquand; Peter Matthiessen (confirmation only); ACM; Terry Netter; Alfonso Ossorio; Philip Pavia; Jane Pearce; David Peretz; EFP; FLP; MLP; SWP; Becky Reis; Miriam Schapiro; Jon Schueler; David Slivka; Jane Smith; Syd Solomon; Carol Southern; Patsy Southgate; Ronald Stein; Ruth Stein; Marta Vivas; Samuel Wagstaff; Joan Ward; Steve Wheeler; Roger Wilcox; Betsy Zogbaum.

  NOTES

  Date of visit: The idea was already being discussed when Jay wrote to Charles, Aug. 31, 1953. “Selfishness”: SMP to CCP, Jan. 14, 1954. War over mail: SMP to CCP, Nov. 16, 1955. SMP to CCP, Oct. 22, 1951: “[She and Sande] talk about getting a job but that is as far as it goes. If l was in Loie’s place I would of had a job four months ago.” This from a woman who had seldom held a job during the years of poverty with Roy. Stella’s enjoyment of Jackson’s life-style: ACM. “Culture crazy”: CG. “Whenever anyone”: Int. by Shorthall, Nov. 9, 1959.

  “Jackson drinking beer”: FLP. Flaunting affluence: On one visit, JP played some new Count Basie records for his brother Frank and, when Frank told him he wasn’t familiar with Basie’s music, JP patronizingly told him he should be; FLP. MLP: ”We heard again and again that the only painter worth looking at in America was him.” “Cantankerous child”: Capillé. Lee not encouraging contributions: FLP, q. in Potter, p. 108. Protecting Stella from problems: ACM. Resentment of Stella’s praise: MLP. Jackson doing no wrong: EFP. Favoritism: Karen Del Pilar, Stella’s unfavored grandchild: “I was tremendously jealous,” she admits. Years of excuses: Del Pilar.

  “Old age quirks”: MJP to CCP, Aug. 31, 1953. Living alone impossible: CCP to MJP, Sept. 5, 1953: “I do not think it wise for her to live alone. For one thing there is always the danger of a serious fall; also, unless she improves remarkably, which seems most unlikely, Mother is no longer able to walk out for groceries and the like. Even if she were able to live alone, $100.00 a month would hardly be enough for her needs.” “Perplexing”; “staying with Jack”: MJP to CCP, Aug. 31, 1953. “A temporary stay”: FLP to CCP, Aug. 29, 1953. September 1 drive; “[Jack] was in”; “fully aware”; “another long talk”; “cooperative”: CCP to MJP, Sept. 5, 1953. Stella in Springs: SMP to CCP, EFP, and Jeremy, Sept. 12, 1953. “Waiting on me”: SMP to CCP, Jan. 14, 1954. “Breakfast cantelope”: SMP to CCP, EFP, and Jeremy, Sept. 12, 1953. Ritual: OC&T 376, II, p. 217. Stella’s favorite painting: ACM. Sleeping Effort: OC&T 373, II, pp. 212–13. Easter and the Totem: OC&T 374, II, pp. 214–15. Four Opposites: OC&T 377, II, pp. 218–19. “Too good”: LK, q. by Little. Return to Deep River; “wanted to see”; “Jack had asked”: SMP to FLP, MLP, and Jonathan, Sept. 29, 1953.

  “Slightly down-at-the-heels”: Collier; see also John Cole, q. in Potter, p. 166. Roueché‘s old place: Potter, p. 176. “Because Lee feared”: John Cole. “For the cops”: Blake. “Neurotically fraternal”: John Cole. “Make a pig”: Blake. “Effects of the moon”: JP, q. by LK. “Because the moon”: Q. in Namuth, n.p.

  Four works sent to Janis: JP to Janis, Sept. 28, 1953. Paintings from previous year: Janis; JP to Janis, Sept. 28, 1953; JP to Janis, n.d. “He wondered”: JP, q. by Hubbard, recalling Elizabeth Wright Hubbard. Cancellation: For evidence that, even as late as early October, the show was scheduled originally for November, see Janis, q. in Potter, p. 187. Borrowing more money: JP to Janis, n.d. Jackson ignoring repainting: John Cole, q. in Potter, p. 166. “They are great!”; “Clem reacted”; “one client”: Janis to JP, Oct. 20, 1953. “Went up to Janis’s”: Still to JP, Oct. 29, 1953. No compliments from Still: Years later, in a letter to B.H. Friedman, Still remained unwilling to express admiration for the works themselves; see Friedman, p. 223. The Deep: OC&T 372, II, pp. 210–11 (7′3″ × 4′11″). White field: O’Hara, p. 31: “An abyss of glamor encroached upon by a flood of innocence.” Tribute to Still: Ca
rone; Wagstaff. CG: “He looked at what Clyff was doing and made a stab at it.” When JP asked Krasner for her opinion of the work, she said (q. by Wagstaff), “I don’t know what to say except I see you’ve done one of your crazies.” “The big league”: JP to Janis, n.d.

  “The idea, or the image”: LK, q. by Cile Downs (Lord), q. in Potter, p. 204. Dreaming of Stella: Henderson, pp. 44–45. Jackson gave a more detailed description of a similar dream to Roger Wilcox a few years earlier: “In this dream,” Wilcox remembers, “he is in a place with very high grass, as high as your head, waving in the breeze. There is a path through this grass, and at the end of it, he sees a figure in flimsy veils coming toward him. It’s a beautiful woman, but he can’t really see her clearly. He stands there watching as she comes toward him, but she doesn’t seem to be getting any closer. When he starts walking toward her, she disappears.” Sketches: John Cole, who saw the work in progress. Five by eleven: Actually 4′10″ by 11′2″. Earlier painting: OC&T 10, I, p. 9. Early self-portrait: OC&T 9, I, p. 8. Portrait and a Dream: OC&T 368, II, pp. 200–03. JP told Elizabeth Wright Hubbard that it was a self-portrait of him “when I’m not sober”; Hubbard, int. by FVOC, Feb. 22, 1964, q. in Institute of Contemporary Art, “JP: The Black Pourings,” 1951–1953, p. 20. The name was originally Portrait with a Dream; OC&T II, p. 200. “You mean”: Q. by Ruth Stein. Stella the void: JP described the upper right-hand corner of the panel to Lillian Kiesler and Alice Hodges as the “dark side of the moon”; JP, q. by LK, q. in Friedman, “An Interview with Lee Krasner Pollock,” in Marlborough-Gerson, n.p. He said the same thing to Lee Krasner; q. in Namuth, n.p.

  Winter’s antics: MJP to CCP, Dec. 4 or 14, 1953: “Surely Elizabeth can set him back on his heels or hang up when he calls in that condition.” “Jackson’s latest”: MJP to CCP, Dec. 4 or 14, 1953. Arrangements for January visit; “Mother had planned”: CCP to FLP, Jan. 2, 1954. “Glad to have mother”; “no other answer”: MJP to CCP, Dec. 4 or 14, 1953. “Mother’s whole attitude”: SLM to CCP, Jan. 5, 1954. “Loie is the one”: SMP to CCP, Jan. 14, 1954; emphasis in the original. “New works better”: SMP to CCP, Jan. 14, 1954. The identity of the works is not clear. Call to Tony Smith; “When I heard”: Smith to LK and JP, Feb. 8, 1954. February opening: One-man show, Sidney Janis Gallery, Feb. 1–27, 1954, ten works; JP was so nervous about the opening that he told John Cole, “I can’t face the drive into New York,” so they loaded the paintings into the back of Cole’s car and Cole drove him in; Cole. “What kind of spectacle”: Blake to JP, Feb. 4, 1954: “That head [in Portrait and a Dream] was wonderful. I thought it was better than any of the great, monumental Picassos that I’ve ever seen, and it was just as good as any of the Easter Island heads.” One week in New York: SMP to CCP, Feb. 23, 1954. Sande seeing show: SMP to CCP, Feb. 27, 1954.