“…bordered on the psychopathic.”
However, Walsh stresses Pollock’s problem and, more generally, that of Abstract Expressionism and post-war American painting, was in great part due to the dramatic and difficult political environment of the mid-twentieth century. He indicates specifically the effects of the growth of Stalinism in the Soviet Union and the Communist parties around the world, the nature of Trotsky’s opposition to Stalinism and the tragic fate of the Socialist revolution, as well as the conservative trend of the nature of post-war American society[5].
Portraits
Brief profiles of key figures in Pollock’s life can help paint a background against which the life of the artist might be seen in some historical context. Thumbnail sketches of those key people named above are offered throughout this book, along with notes on Willem de Kooning, Matta, Ruth Kligman, and Frank O’Hara.
Cycles
Pollock’s styles overlapped between cycles. Like the early works of many creative minds (in Pollock’s case, his work before c.1947), they are praised at the time of their creation. Critics then typically downgrade them mainly because subsequent works are even greater. Similarly, works after a peak period (for Pollock after c.1950) are seen as of less value. However, a convincing case can be made to show even the less successful work in Pollock’s oeuvre would have earned him a permanent place in the history of art.
Pepe Karmel observes, “What appeared to observers of the 1940s and 1950s as a relatively seamless evolution (of Pollock as an artist) was now broken into three distinct phases: the early work, the ‘classic’ drip paintings, and the late work.” The term ‘drip’ is only used here when quoting others, as it was not a term preferred by Pollock or Krasner. While respecting Karmel’s three cycles, this book considers Pollock’s life in four sections:
The Myth of the Artist Cowboy
Struggling During the Early Years: Making Energy Visible
Brilliant Peak Years: Art as Self-Discovery
The Genius of His Gesture: Involving Art and Others in His Self-Destruction
Reflection on the Big Dipper, 1947. Oil on canvas, 111 × 92 cm, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.
The Myth of the Artist Cowboy
“Yes, the modern artist is working with space and time, and expressing his feelings rather than illustrating.”[6]
In 1912, the SS Titanic sank. Picasso was only twenty-two, but his Le Moulin de la Galette and The Two Sisters of nearly ten years before, as well as his recent Harlequin, were already well known.
Birth
The year Jackson Pollock was born was the year Democrat Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) became the U. S. president. However, the policies of the next Democratic president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882–1945), would most directly influence Pollock and the art world.
Coincidentally, catastrophic maritime disasters fell in both the year of Pollock’s birth and the year of his death. The former tragedy was the sinking of the S. S. Titanic in 1912 during her maiden voyage to New York City; the latter was the sinking of the Andrea Doria in 1956.
The major news story of the year 1912 was undoubtedly the sinking of the S. S. Titanic during her maiden voyage. In other news, Arizona and New Mexico became states that year. However, the events of 1912 which would influence Pollock most directly included the publishing of C. G. Jung’s The Theory of Psychoanalysis, and the popularity of works by Picasso, such as that year’s The Violin.
Cody
On 28 January, 1912, Paul Jackson Pollock was born on Watkins Ranch in Cody, Wyoming. The town is in the northwest area of the state, about fifty miles East of Yellowstone National Park. The state is widely known as ‘the cowboy state’ and was part of the legendary Wild West. When Jackson’s parents moved there, the town had about 500 residents[7].
Pollock’s earliest experiences were in the atmosphere of myths and romanticising of the Old West. The town of Jackson’s birth was founded only six years before the Pollock family moved there by Colonel William ‘Buffalo Bill’ Cody (1846–1917). He was, and probably still is, the state’s most famous historical figure. Dozens of places in the area bear his name. He was an internationally-known buffalo hunter and showman, a promoter – and even creator – of some of the most legendary images of the ‘Wild West’ culture of the United States. Cody needlessly slaughtered 6,570 buffalo. It was a time when sensitivity to animal rights and macro-views of ecology were generally not yet cultivated.
At the time of Jackson’s birth, Buffalo Bill was nearing the end of his life. In a unique way Pollock would carry on the spirit of some of Cody’s most exciting pioneering, rebellious and wild images, as well as myths about legendary American cowboys. Although Pollock spent only his first few months as an infant in Cody, he didn’t correct people who presumed he had lived in that truly Western town until he arrived in New York City. The Pollock-like character in Updike’s Pollock-inspired novel Seek my Face (2002) was, “…always telling people he had been a cowboy and it was a lie but his body looked it.”[8]
Willem de Kooning’s biographers state, “Pollock’s self-destruction had a kind of grandeur that many in the art world respected. Pollock seemed a purely American figure, an authentic visionary, cowboy, and maverick.”[9]
Fiction
The Updike title alludes to the verse in Psalm 27: “You speak in my heart and say, ‘Seek my face.’ Your face, Lord, will I seek.” The psalmist and novelist, as well as biographers, want to unveil the image of their subject, yet they know, ultimately, the image will remain a mystery. However, Updike also veils his subject, Jackson Pollock, but doing so only thinly. For example, some names in Updike’s novel are more obvious allusions, such as Onna de Genoog representing Willem de Kooning, or Hackmann for Hofmann. Seamus O’Rourke is nearly an anagram for Mark Rothko. Updike’s main character is named Zack McCoy in the novel. The novel’s name for the artist is an allusion to both the artist’s familiar first name (Jack) and his father’s actual last name (McCoy).
The Real McCoy
Apparently only Pollock’s family called him Jack[10], and he signed at least one letter ‘Jacks’[11]. In 1930, Pollock dropped his first name, Paul. Years later his wife, Lee Krasner, would refer to him, even in his presence, as Pollock.
McCoy was the birth name of Jackson’s father, LeRoy. After the death of LeRoy’s parents, in 1897, he was taken care of by a family named Pollock. Ten days before his twenty-first birthday LeRoy was adopted by the Pollocks. He then took on the name Pollock. Later he asked a lawyer to have his name changed back to McCoy, but doing so would have been too expensive[12].
Composition with Pouring II, 1943. Oil on canvas, 64.7 × 56.2 cm, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.
Walsh. Paragraph 13
interview for a Sag Harbor radio station in the Fall of 1950; Cf. O’Connor (77) Pages 79–81
Salomon. Page 19
Updike. Page 55
Stevens. Page 392
× 228.6 cm, Collection Samuel and Ronnie Heyman.
Harrison (46). Page 8
Solomon. Page 18
