Pollock. Donald Wigal

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or ‘the mistress of modernism,’ the title used by her biographer, Mary V. Dearborn.

      Closing of Art of This Century

      “I hate paintings… Painting is my whole life.”[72]

Age 44

      According to biographers Naifeh & Smith, Pollock begged Guggenheim to give him a final show at Art of This Century (AOTC) in 1946, before the gallery closed[73]. It would have been the best time to sell art, during the Christmas season. He wanted to sell more paintings in order to make a profit that year. However, she said the best she could do was to give him a show in early 1947, which was clearly not as advantageous to him.

      In Greenberg’s review of Pollock’s first exhibition, the critic said some of the artist’s large works used wallpaper patterns (37). Even years later, in 1952, the critic Harold Rosenberg would still refer to apocalyptic wallpaper, a phrase often repeated and which especially irritated the artist[74]. Rosenberg’s statement about gestural painting was likewise influential and became famous, alluding rather obviously to Pollock as well as others: “At a certain moment the canvas began to appear to one American painter after another as an arena in which to act… what was to go on the canvas was not a picture but an event.”[75]

      One-Man Shows

      In this unofficial review of the artist’s works, the significant one-man shows during his life are considered to be the following:

      1st 1943 AOTC*

      2nd 1945 Chicago

      3rd 1945 AOTC*

      4th 1945 San Francisco

      5th 1946 AOTC*

      6th 1948 Betty Parsons*

      7th 1949 Betty Parsons*

      8th 1949 Betty Parsons*

      9th 1950 Venice

      10th 1950 Betty Parsons*

      11th 1951 Maryland

      12th 1951 Betty Parsons*

      13th 1952 Paris

      14th 1952 Sidney Janis*

      15th 1953 Vermont

      16th 1954 Sidney Janis*

      17th 1955 Sidney Janis*

      18th 1956–1957 MoMA Retrospective*

      19th 1957 Brazil, Rome, Basel, Amsterdam, Manburg, Berlin, London, Paris

      *Manhattan

      Guggenheim’s Profits

      After his first one-man show, Pollock was not yet an unqualified critical success. But, late in life, Guggenheim watched the prices of Pollock paintings grow to tremendous amounts. She commented, “I never sold a Pollock for more than $1,000 in my life.” (68) Art dealer Ben Heller likewise denied the rumour he made $4 million on his works by Pollock, adding: “I’ve been in hock for works of art since I started (collecting).”[76]

      However, by donating Mural to the University of Iowa in 1948, Guggenheim was able to take a tax deduction of $3,100. On the other hand, she had given away countless Pollock works over the years, usually without realising any tax advantages[77]. For example, she gave Pollock’s Cathedral to Bernard and Becky Reis in 1949, who in turn later gave it to the Dallas Museum of Art. Cathedral was chosen to represent Pollock’s work in his biographical profile in Greenhill’s Dictionary of Art (39).

      Guggenheim believed she owned the 1947 works, War, Composition, Shimmering Image, White Horizontal, and Sounds in the Grass: Eyes In the Heat (II).

      She didn’t mention Alchemy which is another work often shown as typical of Pollock’s work from those peak years. In Steven Little’s book Isms (2004), the painting is shown to illustrate the ‘physicality and energy’ which is typical of much of Abstract Expressionism. The author then defines Jung’s concept of alchemy, as if the painting’s title had anything to do with the painting itself.

      Untitled, c.1945 Ink and Gouache over engraving and drypoint, 40.6 × 59.7 cm, Private Collection.

      Number 6, 1948: Blue, Red, Yellow, 1948. Oil and enamel on paper, mounted on canvas, 57.2 × 77.8 cm, Private Collection.

      Number 34, 1949, 1949. Enamel on paper on masonite, 59.7 × 81.3 × 1.9 cm. Munson Proctor Art Institute, Museum of Art, Utica, New York.

      Untitled (Cut-Out Figure), 1948–1950. Enamel, aluminum and oil paint, glass and nails on cardboard and paper, mounted on fiberboard, 78.8 × 57.5 cm, Private Collection.

      Untitled (Cut-Out), 1948. Enamel, aluminum and oil paint, glass and nails on cardboard and paper, mounted on fiberboard, 78.8 × 57.5 cm, Ohara Museum of Art, Kurashiki, Japan.

      Untitled (Shadows: Number 2, 1948), 1948. Oil and paper cut out on canvas, 136.5 × 111.8 cm, Private Collection.

      Also painted in 1947 was Reflection on the Big Dipper. It was one of the works from this period critics, with the exception of Greenberg, loved to use to show off their clever phrases. Parker Tyler in Art Digest said, “Pollock’s current method seems to be a sort of automatism, apparently while staring steadily up into the sky, he lets go a loaded brush on the canvas. …probably it also results in the severest pain in the neck since Michelangelo painted the Sistine Ceiling.”[78]

      Not many people actually liked Pollock’s earlier works, so the rare positive reaction to them is especially noteworthy. The fact that Putzel immediately used the word ‘genius’ to describe Pollock’s works is mentioned in most biographies of Pollock. Putzel’s personal epiphany is captured in plays, movies and most notably in Ed Harris’ film. They all follow, sometimes scrupulously, the comprehensive presentation in the Naifeh & Smith biography (72). The ‘genius’ moment is also pivotal in Updike’s novel[79].

      Farmhouse

      “I sometimes lose a painting but I have no fear of changes, because a painting has a life of its own.”[80]

Age 38

      Around the time of their marriage, Krasner found the farmhouse on Long Island which they rented. Krasner wanted Pollock to leave Manhattan, in order to isolate him from his drinking buddies.

      The house, built in 1879, was on the edge of a swamp and had no heat or inside toilet. But Krasner convinced Guggenheim that Pollock would be more productive at that location.

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