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Authors: Deborah Solomon

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Chapter Twelve: “The Greatest Living Painter”

192
.

Pollock offered to demonstrate: interview with Arnold Newman, Dec. 1984.

193
.

“little bit short of cash”: ibid.

193
.

“He talked”: interview with Dorothy Seiberling, Jan. 1984.

193
.

“If you want to see a face”: JP to
Life
. The interview transcript is in the Time, Inc. archive.

193
.

“J
ACKSON
P
OLLOCK
—Is he the greatest . . . ?”:
Life
, Aug. 8, 1949.

194
.

“adjustment you have made”: letter from Dr. James Wall to JP, Aug. 23, 1949, Pollock
Archive.

194
.

“maybe it would seem exploitative”: interview with Rebecca Tarwater Hicks, May 1984.

194
.

“completely understand”:
The New Era
(Deep River, Connecticut), Aug. 25, 1949.

194
.

“movie cowboy Roy Rogers”:
The Cody
(Wyoming)
Enterprise
, Aug. 12, 1949.

194
.

“made peace with themselves”: James Valliere, interview with Daniel T. Miller,
Provincetown Review
(Fall 1968), p. 36.

195
.

“He couldn’t read the article while we were there”: James Brooks to James Valliere,
Nov. 1965, Pollock Archive.

195
.

“The Model A’s a good car”: Du Plessix and Gray, p. 53.

195
.

“straight American boy”: ibid.

197
.

“Don’t let an artist”: interview with Alfonso Ossorio, Jan. 1984.

197
.

“very silent”: ibid.

198
.

“more than ever repetitious”: Carlyle Burrows, New York
Herald Tribune
, Nov. 27, 1949.

198
.

“Late Work by Kandinsky”: Stuart Preston, “Late Work by Kandinsky Pollock, and Others,”
The New York Times
, Nov. 27, 1949, Sec. II, p. 12.

198
.

“the best show he has ever had”: card from Stella Pollock to Frank Pollock, postmarked
Dec. 22, 1949,
Catalogue Raisonné
, p. 246.

199
.

“an insane dinner party”: letter from LK to Ossorio, n.d.,
Catalogue Raisonné
, p. 247.

199
.

“Terrific, terrific”: interview with Esteban Vicente, a friend and colleague of Pollock’s,
April 1984.

200
.

“What did you think”: interview with Milton Resnick, April 1984.

200
.

“Pollock broke the ice”: de Kooning made the comment at a memorial service for Pollock
sponsored by The Club on Nov. 30, 1956.

201
.

left before the lecture was over: letter from LK to Ossorio, n.d.,
Catalogue Raisonné
, p. 247.

201
.

“Jackson didn’t like doing things with coffee”: John Gruen,
The Party’s Over Now
(New York: Viking, 1967).

202
.

“notoriously hostile to advanced art”: “18 Painters Boycott Metropolitan; Charge ‘Hostility
to Advanced Art,’ ”
The New York Times
, May 22, 1950, p. 1.

202
.

“The Irascible Eighteen”: editorial, “The Irascible Eighteen,” New York
Herald Tribune
, May 23, 1950.

202
.

“like bankers”: B. H. Friedman. “The Irascibles: A Split Second in Art History,”
Arts
(Sept. 1978), p. 102.

202
.

“neutral territory”: ibid.

204
.

“Piccolo discorso sui quandri di Jackson Pollock”: undated magazine clipping from
L’Arte Moderna
, Pollock Archive.

204
.

“Do you know any Italian”: interview with Marie Levitt Pollock, July 1983.

205
.

“shrug off”: “Chaos, Damn It!”
Time
, Nov. 20, 1950, p. 71.

205
.

“at least for artist Pollock”: letters,
Time
, Dec. 11, 1950, p. 10.

206
.

“I can’t decide whether this painting is finished”: telephone interview with Rudy
Burckhardt, Sept. 1985.

208
.

“The painting is finished”: Hans Namuth, “Photographing Pollock,” in Barbara Rose,
ed.,
Pollock Painting
(New York: Agrinde Publications, 1978), n.p.

208
.

“Do you have any more?”: interview with Hans Namuth, Dec. 1983.

210
.

drew attention to Pollock’s technique: see Barbara Rose, “Namuth’s Photographs and
the Pollock Myth,” in
Pollock Painting
.

210
.

“At a certain moment”: Harold Rosenberg, “The American Action Painters,”
Art News
(Dec. 1952), p. 22.

211
.

“I lost contact with my first painting on glass”: Jackson Pollock movie, produced
by Hans Namuth and Paul Falkenberg, 1951.

Chapter Thirteen: The “Black” Paintings

214
.

“The big thing right now”: letter from Jay Pollock to Frank Pollock, postmarked Dec.
3, 1950,
Catalogue Raisonné
, Vol. 4, p. 255.

215
.

“meaningless embellishment”: Robert M. Coates, “Extremists,”
The New Yorker
, Dec. 9, 1950, p. 110.

215
.

“personal comment”: Howard Devree,
The New York Times
, Dec. 3, 1950, Sec. II, p. 9.

215
.

“richest and most exciting”: B.K. [Belle Krasne], “Fifty-seventh Street in Review,”
Art Digest
, Dec. 1, 1950, p. 16.

215
.

didn’t know where his paintings came from: letter from Clement Greenberg to the author,
April 1, 1984.

215
.

“I found New York terribly depressing”: letter from JP to Ossorio and Dragon, Jan.
6, 1951,
Catalogue Raisonné
, Vol. 4, p. 257.

215
.

“I really hit an all time low”: letter from JP to Ossorio, n.d.,
Catalogue Raisonné
, Vol. 4, p. 257.

216
.

“Who, exactly, has he hit”: interview with Clement Greenberg, Dec. 1983.

216
.

“like a movie star”: Jeffrey Potter,
To a Violent Grave: An Oral Biography of Jackson Pollock
(New York: Putnam, 1985), p. 210.

217
.

“while I was in there”: ibid., pp. 195–96.

217
.

“One couldn’t entertain a dialogue”: Deborah Solomon, “An Interview with Helen Frankenthaler,”
Partisan Review
, 50th Anniversary Issue (1984), p. 795.

217
.

“Dali once told me”: Selden Rodman,
Conversations with Artists
(New York: Devin-Adaro, 1957), pp. 107–08.

218
.

“I heard you were talking yesterday”: Fielding Dawson,
An Emotional Memoir of Franz Kline
(New York: Pantheon, 1967), p. 84.

218
.

“I loathed the place”: Barbara Rose movie,
Lee Krasner: The Long View
, 1978, distributed by the American Federation of Arts.

218
.

“Don’t bother bringing him up”: interview with Dan Rice, 1983.

218
.

“above water”: letter from JP to Ossorio, n.d.,
Catalogue Raisonné
, Vol. 4, p. 257.

219
.

“jurying was something I swore I’d never do”: letter from JP to Ossorio, n.d., in
Catalogue Raisonné
, Vol. 4, p. 258.

219
.

“That’s awful”: telephone interview with the painter Leon Golub, a member of the Momentum
group, Dec. 1983.

219
.

“The jurying was disappointing”: letter from JP to Ossorio and Dragon, n.d.,
Catalogue Raisonné
, Vol. 4, p. 258.

219
.

“not too happy”: letter from JP to Ossorio and Dragon, June 7, 1951,
Catalogue Raisonné
, Vol. 4, p. 262.

219
.

“My home is in Springs”: Jackson Pollock movie, produced by Hans Namuth and Paul Falkenberg,
1951.

220
.

“this is exotic music”: telephone conversation with Paul Falkenberg, Sept. 1985.

220
.

“feel good about them”: letter from JP to Ossorio, n.d.,
Catalogue Raisonné
, Vol. 4, p. 258.

220
.

“stops the show”: B.H. [Betty Holliday],
Art News
(April 1951), p. 47.

221
.

“the chef-d’école”: Henry McBride,
Art News
(Dec. 1951), p. 20.

221
.

“Mr. and Mrs. Jackson Pollack”:
The East Hampton Star
, May 10, 1951, p. 6.

222
.

“How did it go?”: Barbara Rose, “Pollock’s Studio: Interview with Lee Krasner,” in
Barbara Rose, ed.,
Pollock Painting
(New York: Agrinde Publications, 1978), n.p.

222
.

“some of her best painting”: letter from JP to Ossorio and Dragon, June 7, 1951,
Catalogue Raisonné
, Vol. 4, p. 261.

223
.

“a very quiet summer”: letter from JP to Ossorio and Dragon, n.d.,
Catalogue Raisonné
, Vol. 4, p. 263.

224
.

“Should I cut it here?”: B. H. Friedman, “Interview with Lee Krasner,”
Jackson Pollock: Black and White
, exhibition catalogue (New York: Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, 1969), n.p.

224
.

“the non-objectivists will find them disturbing”: letter from JP to Ossorio and Dragon,
June 7, 1951,
Catalogue Raisonné
, Vol. 4, p. 61.

225
.

“This is
Lee’s
show”: telephone interview with Jacob Kainen, Dec. 1983.

225
.

“could you do it in color?”: Friedman, “An Interview with Lee Krasner,”
Jackson Pollock: Black and White
, n.p.

225
.

“My paintings aren’t selling”: Greenberg interview.

226
.

“If Pollock were a Frenchman”: Clement Greenberg, “Feeling Is All,”
Partisan Review
(Jan.-Feb. 1952), p. 97.

226
.

“All I want is five hundred dollars”: interview with Arloie McCoy, Dec. 1983.

226
.

“Where’s the emulsion?”: interview with Alfonso Ossorio, Feb. 1984.

227
.

“I have been skinned alive”: letter from JP to Ossorio, March 30, 1952,
Catalogue Raisonné
, Vol. 4, p. 267.

227
.

standing on a high structure: B. H. Friedman,
Jackson Pollock: Energy Made Visible
(McGraw-Hill, 1974), p. 172.

227
.

a vacuum cleaner: William Lieberman,
Jackson Pollock: The Last
Sketchbook (New York: Johnson Reprint and Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1982), p. 13.

227
.

“Two cars”: ibid.

227
.

“Weather clear”: This report is in the files of the Town of East Hampton police department.

227
.

Jackson Pollock, Artist:
The East Hampton Star
, Jan. 3, 1952, p. 1.

Chapter Fourteen:
Blue Poles

228
.

“I never pushed sales”: Ken Kelley, “Betty Parsons Taught America to Appreciate What
It Once Called ‘Trash’: Abstract Art,”
People
, Feb. 27, 1978, p. 83.

228
.

“my financial mess”: letter from JP to Betty Parsons, n.d.,
Catalogue Raisonné
, Vol. 4, p. 245.

228
.

“If you cannot give me 15%”: letter from Betty Parsons to JP, June 25, 1951, Pollock
Archive.

228
.

“Betty sailed last Sat”: letter, from JP to Ossorio, n.d.,
Catalogue Raisonné
, Vol. 4, p. 262.

229
.

“very anxious”: letter from Betty Parsons to JP, Jan. 31, 1952, Pollock Archive.

229
.

“Since Manet”: interview with Clement Greenberg, Dec. 1983.

230
.

“Do you think the market”: interview with Sidney Janis, Jan. 1984.

230
.

“The edge is gone”: Thomas B. Hess,
Art News
(April 1952), p. 17.

231
.

“Here, get out of here”: interview with Jane Smith, the widow of Tony Smith, Dec.
1984.

231
.

“a bicycle, an automobile tire”:
The East Hampton Star
, Aug. 28, 1952, p. 6.

231
.

“I still respect you as an artist”: Cindy Nemser,
Art Talk
(New York: Scribner’s, 1975), p. 94.

231
.

“very severe shock”: ibid.

232
.

“For crissakes, Jackson”: Stanley P. Friedman, “Loopholes in ‘Blue Poles,’ ”
New York
, Oct. 29, 1973, p. 48.

233
.

“looked like vomit”: ibid.

233
.

Newman regretted the request: telephone conversation with Annalee Newman, 1985.

233
.

“This won’t come through”: Barbara Rose, “Pollock’s Studio: An Interview with Lee
Krasner,” in
Pollock Painting
, ed. Barbara Rose (New York: Agrinde Publications, 1978), n.p.

235
.

“This is Jackson Pollock”: Janis interview.

236
.

the highest price: Israel Shenker, “A Pollock Sold for $2 Million, Record for American
Painting,”
The New York Times
, Sept. 22, 1973, p. 1.

236
.

“not bad paintings”: Clement Greenberg to James Valliere, unpublished interview, March
1968, Pollock Archive.

236
.

“The last thing I want”: Greenberg interview.

237
.

“You’re a fool”: ibid.

237
.

“At a certain moment”: Harold Rosenberg, “The American Action Painters,”
Art News
(Dec. 1952), p. 22.

237
.

Pollock was appalled: William Rubin, “Pollock as Jungian Illustrator: The Limits of
Psychological Criticism,”
Art in America
(Dec. 1979), p. 91; see also letter from Parker Tyler,
Art News
(March 1961), p. 6.

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