75.
“an enraged Commie”: Benton, An Artist in America, p. 171.
75.
“petty opportunist”: Art Front, April 1, 1935.
76.
“take the Marxist slant”: quoted in Art Digest, April 15, 1935, p. 13.
77.
“He was truly a lost soul”: letter from Manuel Tolegian to Thomas Hart Benton, Aug. 21, 1964.
Chapter Five: The Project
78.
“Bums are the well-to-do”: letter from JP to his father, Feb. 3, 1933, Catalogue Raisonné, Vol. 4, p. 214.
78.
“grateful to the WPA”: “Unframed Space,” The New Yorker, Aug. 5, 1950, p. 16.
79.
“plumbers’ wages”: quoted in Francis V. O’Connor, Federal Art Patronage, 1933 to 1943 (College Park, MD: Univ. of Maryland Art Gallery, 1966), p. 7.
79.
“Lenin’s head”: ibid., p. 8.
79.
“poor art for poor people”: quoted in Harold Rosenberg, The De-definition of Art (New York: Horizon Press, 1937), p. 35.
80.
“I paid a severe price”: quoted in Thomas B. Hess, Barnett Newman (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1971), p. 88.
80.
dressed in pajamas: telephone interview with Jacob Kainen, 1984.
81.
Twelve of Pollock’s watercolors were destroyed: these are listed in a WPA document dated March 7, 1941, as follows: #463 White Horse Grazing, #1322 The Drought, #4002 The Twister, #4004 Shore Landscape, #4753 Sunny Landscape, #5430 Baytime, #5431 Martha’s Vineyard, #9100 Landscape, #9191 Landscape #4, #9540 Landscape, #9721 Landscape, #9903 Landscape.
81.
Flushing warehouse: see Art Digest, Feb. 15, 1944, p. 7.
82.
“disaffected”: unpublished interview with Carl Holty by William Agee, for the Archives of American Art, 1964.
83.
“The Project can’t use this work”: unpublished interview with Dorothy C. Miller by Paul Cummings, for the Archives of American Art, 1970.
83.
“There’s no news here”: letter from JP to Charles Pollock, n.d., Catalogue Raisonné, Vol. 4, p. 221.
83.
helped out at the Siqueiros workshop: Laurance P. Hurlburt, “The Siqueiros Experimental Workshop,” Art Journal (Spring 1976), pp. 237 et passim.
84.
he didn’t vote once: The records of the Board of Elections in New York City indicate that Pollock registered to vote for the first time in October 1944. The 1944 presidential election was the only election he ever voted in. (The records of the Board of Elections in Suffolk County, where Pollock lived in later life, indicate that he never voted in that county.)
84.
“He couldn’t draw”: interview with Axel Horn, Nov. 1983.
84.
“He had no ideas”: interview with Harold Lehman, 1984.
85.
“private, lonely person”: interview with Reginald Wilson, 1984.
85.
“Jack had the misfortune”: letter from Sande Pollock to Charles Pollock, Oct. 29, 1936, Catalogue Raisonné, Vol. 4, p. 220.
86.
“He was really in love”: interview with Arloie McCoy, Nov. 1983.
86.
“walk me home”: interview with Rebecca Tarwater Hicks, May 1984.
87.
“It’s almost embarrassing”: ibid.
87.
“I will do what you wish”: letter from JP to Becky Tarwater, n.d.
88.
“having a very difficult time”: letter from Sande Pollock to Charles Pollock, July 21, 1937, Catalogue Raisonné, Vol. 4, p. 222.
89.
“I found I loved”: letter from JP to Becky Tarwater, n.d.
89.
“out here for a week or so”: postcard from JP to Charles Pollock, n.d., Catalogue Raisonné, Vol. 4, p. 223.
90.
“he began escaping”: Benton notes.
91.
“very gentle young man”: telephone interview with Dr. James Wall, 1984.
91.
“There was a lot of calming down”: quoted in Jeffrey Potter, To a Violent Grave: An Oral Biography of Jackson Pollock (New York: Putnam, 1985), p. 57.
91.
“strong creative urge”: letter from Dr. Edward Allen to Lee Krasner, Sept. 2, 1963, Pollock Archive.
Chapter Six: Still Struggling
93.
“extremely unverbal”: Joseph L. Henderson, “Jackson Pollock: A Psychological Commentary,” unpublished paper, 1966, quoted in B. H. Friedman, Jackson Pollock: Energy Made Visible (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1974), p. 41.
94.
“give and receive feeling”: quoted in C. L. Wysuph, Jackson Pollock: Psychoanalytic Drawings (New York: Horizon Press, 1971), p. 17.
95.
“Christ, what a brutal . . . painting”: letter from Sanford Pollock to Charles Pollock, n.d.
96.
“heavy-handed and banal”: Lawrence Alloway, “Art,” The Nation, Nov. 2, 1970, p. 444.
97.
“Jack is going very good work”: letter from Sanford Pollock to Charles Pollock, n.d., Catalogue Raisonné, Vol. 4, p. 224.
98.
“A winter of ups and downs”: letter from Sanford Pollock to Charles Pollock, May 1940.
98.
“The effect of this loss”: Henderson, “Jackson Pollock: A Psychological Commentary,” n.p.
98.
detoxification room at Bellevue Hospital: unpublished interview with Sanford (Sande) McCoy by Kathleen Shorthall, of Life magazine, Nov. 2, 1959.
99.
“He broke a window”: interview with Manuel Tolegian, 1983.
99.
“haven’t much to say”: letter from JP to Charles Pollock, n.d., Catalogue Raisonné, Vol. 4, p. 225.
99.
fall of 1940: The date of Pollock’s meeting with Graham remains disputed among art historians. It has been stated elsewhere that the two men first met in 1937, but Graham was in Mexico that year. The date offered here is based on the recollections of Graham’s widow.
100.
“Of course he did”: quoted in James T. Valliere, “De Kooning on Pollock,” Partisan Review (Fall 1967), p. 603.
101.
“I brought culture”: John Graham, Systems and Dialectics of Art, with introd. by Marcia Epstein Allentuck (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1971), p. 30.
101.
“walk into any junk shop”: Thomas Hess, Graham obituary, Art News (Sept. 1961), p. 51.
101.
“We want bread!”: quoted in Hayden Herrera, “John Graham: Modernist Turns Magus,” Arts (Oct. 1976), p. 105.
101.
“couldn’t stop talking”: inteview with Constance Graham Garner, July 1984.
101.
“Let Paris come see me”: ibid.
102.
“Artists shouldn’t look”: ibid.
102.
“always an Indian around”: Sandy McCoy to Shorthall.
102.
“plastic qualities of American Indian”: interview with JP, Arts and Architecture (Feb. 1944), p. 14.
103.
Alaskan Eskimo mask: Irving Sandler was the first to point out the connection between the Eskimo mask and the painting Birth. See “From Irving Sandler,” Art in America (Oct. 1980), pp. 57–58. William Rubin has also commented on the role of the Eskimo mask in Pollock’s development, though not in writing; his comments were made to a colleague. See Kirk Varnedoe, “Abstract Expressionism,” in “Primitivism” in 20th Century Art, ed. William Rubin (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1984), p. 641.
104.
“The irony is”: Sanford Pollock to Charles Pollock, Oct. 22, 1940, Catalogue Raisonné, Vol. 4, p. 225.
104.
“great doubt about himself”: quoted in Jeffrey Potter, To a Violent Grave: An Oral Biography of Jackson Pollock (New York: Putnam, 1985).
104.
“I have found Pollock”: letter from Dr. De Laszlo to the Examining Medical Office, Selective Service Systems, May 3, 1941. A copy of this letter is in the Pollock Archive.
105.
“this god damned war”: letter from JP to Charles Pollock, postmarked April 14, 1944, Catalogue Raisonné, Vol. 4, p. 233.
105.
“all thru the war”: letter from JP to Louis Bunce (who was a friend from the Art Students League) postmarked June 2, 1946, Bunce papers, Archives of American Art, Washington, DC.
105.
“extremely trying”: letter from Sande Pollock to Charles Pollock, July 1941, Catalogue Raisonné, Vol. 4, p. 226.
106.
“hate like hell”: Sande Pollock to Charles Pollock, Aug. 22, 1941.
106.
“a damn good woman painter”: Arloie McCoy interview.
Chapter Seven: Enter L.K.
107.
“I prided myself”: John Gruen, The Party’s Over Now (New York: Viking, 1967), p. 229.
108.
“I’m Lee Krasner”: interviews by Francine du Plessix and Cleve Gray, “Who Was Jackson Pollock?” Art in America (May 1967), p. 49.
108.
“He stepped all over my feet”: Barbara Rose movie, Lee Krasner: The Long View, 1978, distributed by the American Federation of Arts.
108.
“I flipped my lid”: Gruen, The Party’s Over Now, p. 230.
108.
“Let’s go”: Amei Wallach, “Lee Krasner: Out of Jackson Pollock’s Shadow,” Newsday’s Magazine for Long Island, Aug. 23, 1981, p. 14.
108.
“reading Jung”: unpublished interview with LK by Dorothy Seckler, for the Archives of American Art, Nov. 1964.
109.
“like tree trunks”: William Phillips, A Partisan View: Five Decades of the Literary Life (New York: Stein & Day, 1983), p. 88.
109.
“terribly drawn to Jackson”: Gruen, The Party’s Over Now, p. 230.
110.
working as a customs clerk: interview with Clement Greenberg, Dec. 1983.
110.
“born on a cold day”: interview with Ruth Stein (the artist’s sister), March 1984.
111.
“to draw clothed women figures”: ibid.
112.
“I’d sit close to him”: Eleanor Munro, Originals: American Women Artists (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1979; paperback edition by the same publisher, 1982), p. 104.
112.
“always a brother”: records of the National Academy of Design, New York City.
113.
“This is so good”: Barbara Rose, Lee Krasner: A Retrospective (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1983), p. 13.
113.
“Who is this?” LK to Seckler.
114.
“I’m Igor Pantuhoff”: interview with May Natalie Tabak Rosenberg, the critic’s wife, Dec. 1983.
114.
“Dear Lenore”: John Graham to LK, Nov. 12, 1941.
115.
“general whirling figures”: J.W.L., “Mélange,” Art News, Jan. 15, 1942, p. 29.
115.
“strange”: Art Digest, Jan. 15, 1942, p. 18.
115.
“the Americans looked very good”: quoted in James T. Valliere, “De Kooning on Pollock,” Partisan Review (Fall 1967), p. 603.
115.
“have to sign your paintings”: Barbara Rose, “Lee Krasner,” a lecture given at the Museum of Modern Art, New York City, Jan. 22, 1985.
116.
“a human being in anguish”: interview with Fritz Bultman, 1984.
116.
“a guy in overalls”: Rosenberg interview.
116.
“They’re all so dense”: LK to Du Plessix and Gray, p. 51.
116.
“You are very talented”: Ellen G. Landau, “Lee Krasner’s Early Career, Part Two: The 1940s,” Arts (Nov. 1981), p. 81.
116.
“I am nature”: LK to Seckler.
117.
“highly protective”: interview with Peter Busa, 1984.
117.
“Tuesday night”: letter from Stella Pollock to Charles Pollock and others, May 5, 1942, Catalogue Raisonné, p. 226.
118.
she felt disenchanted: LK to Seckler, and Landau, “Lee Krasner’s Early Career,” ARTS (Nov. 1981), p. 81.
Chapter Eight: Surrealists in New York
121.
“le petit philosophe”: interview with David Hare, 1984.
121.
“deeply depressed man”: “Jackson Pollock: An Artists’ Symposium, Part I,” Art News (April 1967), p. 30.
121.
“uncontrollable neuroses”: Jeffrey Potter, To a Violent Grave: An Oral Biography of Jackson Pollock (New York: Putnam, 1985), p. 70.
122.
the movement was essentially defunct: see Lionel Abel, The Intellectual Follies (New York: Norton, 1984), p. 47.
122.
lonely and depressing: Anna Balakian, Surrealism (New York: Dutton, 1970), n.p.
123.
“they were absolutely ignorant”: Calvin Tompkins, with the editors of Time-Life Books, The World of Marcel Duchamp: 1887– (New York: Time-Life Books, 1966), p. 156.
123.
“fermé”: Sidney Simon, “Concerning the Beginnings of the New York School: 1939–43,” an interview with Peter Busa and Matta, Art International (Summer 1967), p. 18.
123.
“a fox in a hole”: interview with Peter Busa, July 1984.
124.
“The reason”: ibid.
124.
“sort of nonsense”: Potter, To a Violent Grave, p. 70.
126.
pigment is splashed freely: Robert Hobbs pointed out that there are drips in Male and Female in his catalogue for the show Abstract Expressionism: The Formative Years (Ithaca: Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, 1978), p. 8.
126.
“bisexuality or sexual unsureness”: William Rubin, “Pollock as Jungian Illustrator: The Limits of Psychological Criticism,” Art in America (Dec. 1979), p. 79.
127.
“Well, the WPA folded up”: letter from Stella Pollock to Charles Pollock, Feb. 10, 1943.
128.
truly inventive résumé: Joan M. Lukach, Hilla Rebay (New York: Braziller, 1983), photo insert.
129.
“I could do an Arp easy”: Potter, To a Violent Grave, p. 72.
129.
“tiresome rush”: quoted in Dore Ashton, The New York School: A Cultural Reckoning (New York: Viking, 1973), p. 110.
129.
“This . . . NO!”: interview with the artist’s friend and patron Alfonso Ossorio, Feb. 1984.
129.
“mediocrity, if not trash”: Jimmy Ernst, A Not-So-Still Life (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1984), p. 224.
130.
“a picture a day”: Jacqueline Bograd Weld, Peggy: The Wayward Guggenheim (New York: Dutton, 1986), p. 193.
131.
“something of a miracle”: “Jackson Pollock: An Artists’ Symposium, Part I,” p. 30.
132.
“nice”: Jean Connolly, “Art,” The Nation, May 1, 1943, p. 643.
132.
“Pretty awful, isn’t it?”: Ernst, A Not-So-Still Life, p. 241.
133.
“starry-eyed”: Jean Connolly, “Art,” The Nation, p. 786.
133.
“a real discovery”: Robert Coates, “The Art Galleries,” The New Yorker, May 29, 1943, p. 49.
133.
attended the wedding: Busa interview.
134.
“Who’s L.K.?”: Cindy Nemser, Art Talk (New York: Scribner’s, 1975), p. 88.
134.
“trapped animal”: Peggy Guggenheim, Out of This Century: Confessions of an Art Addict (New York: Universe Books, 1979), p. 315.
134.
“Pollock himself”:
ibid.
135.
“Dear Baroness”: Lukach, Hilla Rebay, p. 155.
Chapter Nine: Mural
136.
“to have the painting finished”: letter from JP to Charles Pollock, July 29, 1943, Catalogue Raisonné, Vol. 4, p. 228.
137.
“And where am I?”: interview with Reuben Kadish, 1984.
137.
“I have it stretched”: ibid.
137.
“An American is an American”: “Jackson Pollock,” Arts and Architecture, (Feb. 1944), p. 14.
138.
“She-Wolf came into existence”: Sidney Janis, Abstract and Surrealist Art in America (New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1944), n.p.
139.
named the painting Pasiphaë: interview with James Johnson Sweeney, March 1984. See also William Rubin, “Pollock as Jungian Illustrator: The Limits of Psychological Criticism,” Art in America, Dec. 1979, p. 74.
Jackson Pollock Page 29