Lee Krasner (69 page)

1. 1987-Solomon, 238, East Hampton town police records.

2. LK to the author, many times in conversation.

3. Helen Gribetz to the author, 10-25-2010.

4. 1980-Slobodkina, vol. II, p. 365.

5. 1980-Braff. The following quotation is also from this source.

6. Stuart Preston, “A Melange of Summer Shows,”
NYT,
August 2, 1953, X7.

7. Stuart Preston, “A Melange of Summer Shows,”
NYT,
August 2, 1953, X7.

8. JPCR, vol. 4, 271, D109, letter of November 24, 1953, JP to Sidney Janis.

9. Clement Greenberg, “‘American-Type' Painting,” in 1993-Greenberg, 226.

10. Jackson Pollock quoted in 1985-Potter, 198.

11. 1985-Potter, 198.

12. 1985-Potter, 199.

13. Gertrude Sartain, “You and Your Car,”
Independent Woman,
18, May 1939, 134–35.

14. 1985-Potter, 201.

15. Peter Matthiessen to the author, March 24, 2010.

16. Clement Greenberg, “Jackson Pollock,” quoted in 1997-Rubenfeld, 195.

17. Clement Greenberg, “Jackson Pollock,” quoted in 1997-Rubenfeld, 195.

18. 2006-Marquis, 142–46; 1997-Rubenfeld, 194 and 316, n. 26. In a 1990 interview with Rubenfeld, Greenberg insisted he sent Krasner to Klein, 1989-Naifch 747, interviewed Pearce and says Greenberg sent Krasner to her.

19. 2006-Marquis, 144–46. I am referring only to the “Sullivanians,” such as Pearce, Newton, and Klein—not the William Alanson White Institute.

20. Jane Pearce and Saul Newton,
Conditions of Human Growth
(New York: Citadel Press, 1963). See also 1986-Conason, 21.

21. 1987-Siegel, 278.

22. 1987-Siegel, 278.

23. Bonnie Bernstein, widow of Len Siegel, to the author, letter of 5-30-2010, is the source for his career and training. Len Siegel immigrated to Australia in July 1983. It is possible that he wanted to distance himself from the Sullivanians. See 1989-Hoban, 41–53; 1986-Conason, 19–26; David Black, “Totalitarian Therapy on the Upper West Side,”
New York,
December 15, 1975, 54–67; 2003-Siskind.

24. 99-Friedman, 16.

25. Despite this, 1999-Hobbs, 116–17, has written at length about the impact of the ideas of Harry Stack Sullivan on LK, apparently unaware of Siegel's involvement with the Sullivanians or that they became a cult, some of whom were forced to surrender their licenses to practice in New York State. Nor do we know the exact duration of LK's therapy with Siegel. 1980-Cavaliere, 16, LK responded to a question about combining past and present in reworking some of her unresolved canvases: “I'm not in analysis, so I can't handle it analytically.” See also chapters 14 and 15 for discussion of Krasner's interaction with Siegel.

26. Frances Patiky Stein to the author, interview, January 2008.

27. Cile Downs, interview with the author, 3-2-2010.

28. 1990-Greenberg.

29. 1990-Greenberg.

30. 1975-Nemser-1, 96.

31. 1979-Novak.

32. Ralph Klein to Jeffrey Potter, 5-18-82, recorded interview, PKHSC.

33. Ben Heller to the author, 11-10-210.

34. See 2003-Siskind, 57, 61, etc., and 1989-Hoban, 41–53. Pearce was divorced from Newton and forced out by him and his next wife.

35. 1985-Potter, 232.

36. Judy Collins,
Singing Lessons: A Memoir of Love, Loss, Hope, and Healing
(New York: Atria, 1998), 123, 135.

37. 1998-Collins, 141.

38. 1985-Potter, 265.

39. Patsy Southgate to Andrea Gabor, taped interview of 9-25-91.

40. Order by N.Y. State for suspension of license to practice as a psychologist, July 26, 1991, no. 10402, “professional misconduct” cited. See press release of the University of the State of New York, State Education Department, 6-26-91; see “In the Courts: Sullivanians Lose Licenses,”
Cult Observer,
vol. 8, no. 7, 1991. See also Tamara Lewin, “Custody Case Lifts Veil on a ‘Psychotherapy Cult,'”
NYT,
June 3, 1988 and Susan Reed, “Two Anxious Fathers Battle a Therapy ‘Cult' for Their Kids,”
People
, vol. 30, no. 4, July 25, 1988.

41. LKP, AAA, roll 3774, frames 678–79.

42. LK in conversation with the audience after a showing of Barbara Rose's film,
Lee Krasner: The Long View
, at the Museum of Fine Arts, Roslyn, New York, 1979.

43. Cile Downs to the author, interview of 8-21-2007.

44. Cile Downs to the author, 7-04-2008.

45. Cile Downs to the author, interview of 8-21-2007.

46. 1985-Potter, 175. Ironically, Stein also drank to excess.

47. 1979-Munro, 101.

48. 1979-Munro, 114.

49. Stuart Preston, “Modern Work in Diverse Shows,”
NYT,
October 2, 1955, X15.

50. F.P. [Fairfield Porter], “Lee Krasner,”
Art News,
November 1955, 66. My copy labeled by Krasner when she gave it to me.

51. Martica Sawin, “Lee Krasner,”
Arts,
October 1955, 52, my copy labeled by Krasner herself when she gave it to me.

52. 1971-Groh, frame 983.

53. 1985-Potter, 202.

54. 1971-Groh.

55. Eleanor Ward to Wilfrid Zogbaum, October 14, 1957, 1996-Wagner, note 44, 310–11.

56. Wilfrid Zogbaum to Eleanor Ward, November 7, 1957, quoted in 1996-Wagner, note 44, 311.

57. 1985-Potter, 174.

58. 1985-Potter, 275.

59. 1985-Potter, 174.

60. Dan T. Miller to James T. Valliere, in 2000-Harrison, 233.

61. See 1985-Potter, 188–89.

62. JPCR, 273.

63. 1985-Potter, 215.

64. Cile Downs to the author, 07-04-2008.

65. JPCR, vol. 4, 275.

66. Paul Jenkins interview with the author, 6-26-2008.

67. Paul Jenkins interview with the author, 6-26-2008.

68. Jenkins in 2000-Harrison, 278.

69. Jenkins in 2000-Harrison, 278.

70. Paul Jenkins to Jackson & Lee, letter of April 17, 1956, PKHSC, left in the gift book
Zen in the Art of Archery.

71. LKP, AAA, roll 3774, frame 686.

72. 1978-Howard.

73. 1978-Howard.

74. Related by Krasner, 1979-Munro, 116.

75. 1964-Seckler.

76. 1957-Rodman, 275.

77. Charlotte Park, diary entry for June 18, 1956, quoted in 2001-Abeles, 186.

78. 1985-Potter, 210, and author's interviews with Flack, 9-4-2010 and earlier.

79. 1985-Potter, 228. JPCR describes Kligman as “a fashion model,” but she was then working as an assistant in a small art gallery. See also Will Blythe, “The End of the Affair,” in 2000-Harrison, 289.

80. Audrey Flack to the author, 9-4-2010.

81. Abby Friedman quoted in 1985-Potter, 234.

82. 1985-Potter, 230–31.

83. 1985-Potter, 230–31.

84. 1973-Friedman, 33, and 1995-Friedman, 232.

85. 1995-Friedman, 232.

86. 1974-Kligman.

87. 1974-Kligman, 73 and again on 138.

88. 1985-Potter, 236.

89. Charlotte Brooks and Cile Downs, quoted in 1985-Potter, 233–34.

90. Paul Jenkins, “Excerpts of a Symposium,” 1986, in 2000-Harrison, 280.

91. 1977-Rose-1.

92. JPCR, 276.

93. 1964-Seckler.

94. Listed by 1965-Friedman, 11, who cites the Uccello in the National Gallery, London, instead of that in the Louvre.

95. 1968-Wasserman.

96. 2006-Marquis, 141, states that the relationship with Frankenthaler ended definitively on April 10, 1955, but Frankenthaler's presence where Krasner was hints of Greenberg's continuing link to Frankenthaler.

97. Kay Gimpel to Peggy Guggenheim, letter of July 26, 1956, AAA.

98. Lee Krasner to Esther and Paul Jenkins, postcard dated July 30, 1956, Paul Jenkins Papers, AAA.

99. 1977-Rose-1.

100. Paul Jenkins interview with the author, 6-26-2008.

101. 1977-Rose-1.

102. “8 Killed in 2 L.I. Auto Crashes; Jackson Pollock among Victims,”
NYT,
August 12, 1956, 1.

103. “8 Killed in 2 L.I. Auto Crashes; Jackson Pollock among Victims,”
NYT,
August 12, 1956, 1.

104. 2006-Rose, n.p., note 34.

105. Clement Greenberg to John Gruen, quotation from interview, in draft of Gruen's book (sent 12-3-70), Clement Greenberg Papers, Getty.

106. 1985-Potter, 174. The words in italics are what Greenberg claims he said as opposed to what Jeffrey Potter quoted him as having said in his book of interviews. Greenberg took such issue with how Potter quoted him that when the statement was repeated in an
Art Monthly
article by Francis Frascina entitled “Krasner & Pollock,” he protested in a letter to the editor to correct the record: “Mr. Frascina writes of Lee Krasner & me that ‘neither liked each other much…' How does he know? It's quite untrue.” Greenberg goes on to correct the text of his interview that appeared in Jeffrey Potter,
To a Violent Grave,
1985.

107. 1985-Potter, 169.

108. Judy Collins to the author, 9-22-2010.

1. 1985-Potter, 174.

2. 1973-Wallach-2.

3. 1985-Potter, 174.

4. 2001-Abeles, 188.

5. Jeanne Lawson Bultman to the author, interview of 4-23-2007.

6. 1999-Friedman, 13.

7. Chronologies of Motherwell claim that he met Frankenthaler in 1957, but Friedman's journal entry suggests that they could have met by New Year's Eve 1956. Friedman to the author recalls that the party may have been at the home of Manoucher Yektai.

8. 1973-Barkas, 35.

9. 1979-Munro, 116.

10. Over the years she recruited people to sleep over at the Springs house so that she would not be there alone. Some were Patsy Southgate, Peter Matthiessen (interview with the author, 3-24-2010), and Abigail Little (the daughter of her good friends John and Josephine Little); Abigail Little Tooker to the author, interview of January 14, 2010. Another was Jill Jakes (interview with the author, January 15, 2010), then a recent Vassar graduate who then did some secretarial work for LK, before becoming a lawyer and a judge.

11. Sidney Janis quoted in Les Levine, “A Portrait of Sidney Janis on the Occasion of His 25th Anniversary as an Art Dealer,”
Arts Magazine,
48, November 1973, 53.

12. 1985-Potter, 196, Robert Beverly Hale, curator at the Metropolitan, reported this price.

13. 1985-Potter, 272. Janis held a show of Pollock's drawings in November 1957 and a show of his paintings in November 1958.

14. 1981-Langer.

15. Buffie Johnson to Barbara Shikler, interview of November 13, 1982, AAA.

16. 1967-Seckler.

17. 1960-Rago, 32.

18.
Henri Matisse
exh. cat. (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1951), 10. Clement Greenberg,
Matisse
(New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1953), n.p.

19. See Tetsuya Oshima,
The Figure Reemerging: Jackson Pollock's Cut-Outs, 1948–1956
(New York: Doctoral Dissertation, The Graduate Center of The City University of New York, 2008), 108.

20. Pollock had even spoken to Patsy Southgate about wanting to keep both women, literally a menage à trois

21. See Joan Marter, “Identity Crisis: Abstract Expressionism and Women Artists of the 1950s,” in
Women and Abstract Expressionism, 1945–1959
(New York: Sidney Mishkin Gallery, Baruch College, 1997).

22. 1981-Delatiner.

23. AAA-LKP; 1983-Rose, 98.

24. ‘Signa Gallery Opens with Distinguished Guests,”
East Hampton Star,
July 25, 1957, 1.

25. This was the gallery's third exhibition. Krasner later painted over
Spring Beat
so that it is no longer extant to view. See LKCR, CR315, 166.

26. Georgio Cavallon and Linda Lindeberg, letter of 8-8-57, LKP, AAA, roll 3771, frames 487–88.

27. George Dondero, “Modern Art Shackled to Communism,”
Congressional Record
, 81st Congress, 1st session (1949), vol. 95, pt. 9: 11584-5, as quoted in 1999-Craven, 97.

28. Her file is no. 65-64976.

29. 1999-Craven, 83.

30. “Martha Jackson Dies on Coast; Gallery Aided Abstract Artists,”
NYT,
July 5, 1969, 19.

31. Ben Heller to the author, 11-10-2010.

32. See LK papers, AAA, reel 3776, frame 571. “Lee Krasner—Recent Oils,” press release from Martha Jackson Gallery, lists the date of her marriage to Pollock incorrectly as 1944.

33. B. H. Friedman, “Introduction,”
Lee Krasner
(New York: Martha Jackson Gallery, 1958), n.p.

34. 1999-Friedman, 16.

35. 1978-Howard.

36. Ms. labeled “FINAL COPY SENT to [Sarah Campbell Blaffer] Foundation for Printing in catalogue, 1/19/79,” LKP, AAA, roll 3773, frame 171.

37. Ms. labeled “FINAL COPY SENT to [Sarah Campbell Blaffer] Foundation for Printing in catalogue, 1/19/79,” LKP, AAA, roll 3773, frame 171.

38. Stuart Preston, “The Week's Variety,”
NYT,
May 2, 1958, X9.

39. 1958-Time.

40. 1958-Time.

41. A.V. [Anita Ventura], “Lee Krasner,”
Arts Magazine,
April 1958, 60.

42. A.V. [Anita Ventura], “Lee Krasner,”
Arts Magazine,
April 1958, 60.

43. A.V. [Anita Ventura], “Lee Krasner,”
Arts Magazine,
April 1958, 60.

44. P.T. [Parker Tyler], “Lee Krasner,”
Art News,
April 1958, 15, photocopy labeled in LK's hand and given to the author by the artist.

45. 1968-Glueck.

46. 1972-Holmes.

47. “The Jackson Pollocks' Work Shown Here, Abroad,”
East Hampton Star,
1958, 4, LKP, AAA, reel 3780, frame 398.

48. Brad Gooch,
City Poet: The Life and Times of Frank O'Hara
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993), 307.

49. Signa Gallery Papers, AAA, reel 3984, frame 29, includes price list for show.

50. The Artists Vision was on view from May 30 to July 19, 1958. Also showing were Enrico Donati, Philip Guston, Franz Kline, Richard Pousette-Dart, Day Schnabel, and Theodoros Stamos.

51. 2005-Housley, 177.

52. 2005-Housley, 176. See also 2004-Stevens, 382. Lisa de Kooning, whom her father subsequently adopted, was born January 29, 1956.

53. David Slivka to the author, 9-29-2006. Summer rental confirmed in 2004-Stevens, 406.

54. 1978-Howard. Painted in 1956, the work was misdated in the catalogue as 1951.

55. Martha Jackson to LK, letter of August 8, 1960, apologizing for the delay in payment to her.

56. 2005-Howard, 226.

57. “Signature Plates,”
It is,
Autumn 1958, 22, 29. The others were George Cavallon (with two plates), Ray Parker, Joan Mitchell, Edward Dugmore, Peter Busa, Michael Goldberg, Michael Loew, Robert Richenburg, Paul Jenkins, Alfred Leslie, Perle Fine, Sidney Gordin, Israel Levitan, Patricia Passloff, and Jack Tworkov

58. Oppositie Bowling Green, Battery Park, and the harbor of New York.

59. 1959-Friedman, 57; included Krasner's mosaic table.

60. 1979-Munro, 108.

61. Will Barnet to the author, 3-16-2010.

62. 1959-Friedman, 26. Stein became a sculptor, then began flying planes, and drank to excess, distressing Krasner. After her death, he converted to Catholicism and painted religious images.

63. 1959-Friedman, 26.

64. 1968-Campbell, 62.

65. 1981-Wallach.

66. 1978-Howard.

67. 1978-Howard.

68. 1972-Rose-1.

69. 1978-Howard. Through Ossorio, Krasner could have known that death, in Chinese Buddhist culture, “may be considered as a gate through which the consciousness departs from one life and begins the journey to a new life,” according to Dr. Yutang Lin. “Crossing the Gate of Death in Chinese Buddhist Culture,” June 17, 1995, Tan Wah Temple, Honolulu, Hawaii, online at http://www.originalpurity.org/gurulin/efiles/mbk16.html as of 3-22-2010.

70. 1978-Howard.

71. 2006-Marquis, 174.

72. Spencer [Samuels] to “Lee Pollock,” letter of August 1, 1959, LKP, AAA.

73. 2006-Marquis, 172.

74. Clement Greenberg to the editor,
Arts Magazine,
vol. 98, no. 3, November 1973, 71; corrected draft in CG papers, Getty.

75. Clement Greenberg to the editor,
Arts Magazine,
letter of May 20, 1973, CG Papers, Getty. At the time, as noted in Greenberg's hand on this typed carbon copy: “Not sent? or was it sent, at time [Gregory] Battcock was editior of
Arts…
” is written on the draft in Greenberg's hands. In fact, as noted above, letter was published in issue of November 1973, 71.

76. Clement Greenberg to the editor,
Arts Magazine,
letter of May 20, 1973, CG Papers, Getty Research Institute.

77. Clement Greenberg to Florence Rubenfeld, unedited transcript of interview, 2/16/1990, CG Papers, Getty; her abbreviations are written out in full here. See also 1997-Rubenfeld.

78. Clement Greenberg to Florence Rubenfeld, unedited transcript of interview, 2/16/1990, CG Papers, Getty; her abbreviations are written out in full here. See also 1997-Rubenfeld.

79. Clement Greenberg to Florence Rubenfeld, unedited transcript of interview, 2/16/1990, CG Papers, Getty; her abbreviations are written out in full here. See also 1997-Rubenfeld.

80. Clement Greenberg to Florence Rubenfeld, unedited transcript of interview, 2/16/1990, CG Papers, Getty; her abbreviations are written out in full here. See also 1997-Rubenfeld.

81. Clement Greenberg to Florence Rubenfeld, unedited transcript of interview, 2/16/1990, CG Papers, Getty; her abbreviations are written out in full here. See also 1997-Rubenfeld.

82. 1983-Rose, 155, 157.

83. LK told this account over and over again, in conversation with the author from 1978 to 1982.

84. 1981-Langer.

85. Identified in the catalogue as “
Pittura,”
and dated 1958, this work is recognizable from the catalogue, which Krasner kept among her papers. LKCR 139, omits this exhibition from CR283, although it is clearly included in Krasner's papers, AAA, roll 3776, frame 1022.

86. Ted Dragon quoted in 1998-Gaines, 146–49. See also articles in the
East Hampton Star
on February 26, 1959, and July 16, 1959, and in
Newsday
for February 25, 1959.

87. Ted Dragon quoted in 1998-Gaines, 149.

88. Grace Hartigan quoted in 1998-Gaines, 152.

89. 1998-Gaines, 153.

90. Ted Dragon quoted in 1998-Gaines, 146.

91. Ted Dragon quoted by M. G. Lord, “Lee Krasner, Before and After the Ball Was Over,”
NYT,
August 27, 1995, H31. The following quotation is also from this source.