Jackson Pollock
ln...@columbia.edu
While Jackson Pollock has the reputation he justly deserves for being
an apolitical "art for art's sake" type in his prime, it is important
to understand that he did not start out this way. In many respects,
his journey from radical politics to inward-looking Abstract
Expressionist careerist is emblematic of 20th century American social
history.
From Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith's mammoth (934 pages!) and
informative "Jackson Pollock: an American Saga," we learn that Roy
Pollock, Jackson's father, was sympathetic to leftist causes, as well
as being an artist himself. Jackson heard his father defend the IWW
often, and celebrate the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917. Roy Pollock's
favorite magazine was the Nation, which was a fairly radical
publication at the turn of the century as opposed to the Clinton fan
club it has become.
However, the biggest influence on young Jackson Pollock was Frederick
Schwankovsky, his art teacher in Manual Arts high school in Los
Angeles. Schwankovsky was a partisan of the Communist Party as well as
Madame Blavatsky's Theosophist Society, whose latest avatar was Jiddu
Krishna, a.k.a. Krishnamurti. This is not such an odd combination,
when you examine the 19th century radical movement whose influence
lingered on into the 20th century, especially in Los Angeles, where
the Pollock family lived. Why California has been a magnet for such
cults is a topic for another post. Suffice it to say at this point
that spiritualism of the Blavatsky sort went hand in hand with woman's
suffrage, anti-racism, utopian socialism, etc. in the 1870s and 80s.
Victoria Woodhull, leader of the first Marxist group in the United
States, and who ran for president with Frederic Douglass as her
running-mate, was a professional spiritualist.
Pollock became a devotee of Krishnamurti around the same time he
became a radical leftist. While his radical politics got thrown
overboard en route to becoming a famous artist, it is safe to say that
the mysticism of his youth only deepened with age, and only finally
receded when he became a big time artist. The "New Age" has never made
much of a point of challenging the corporate world. It only asked that
people not be too grubby in the process, which seemed to be main
message of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, the sly, orange-clad, Rolls
Royce-driving cult leader in Oregon during the 1980s.
After Pollock got thrown out of high school for an unruly protest
against the football team, he was able to give his radical and
spiritualist impulses full vent. (A fellow protestor was close friend
Philip Goldstein, who later changed his name to Philip Guston and
became a prominent Abstract Expressionist as well.) In 1929 he
attended Communist meetings at the Brooklyn Avenue Jewish Community
Center in East Los Angeles. It was at these meetings that he probably
learned something about the connection between avant-garde art and
radical politics, especially as expressed in the work of José Clemente
Orozco, Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros. When he wasn't
hanging out at the center, he was running off to spiritualist retreats
with Schwankovsky.
Pollock moved to NY in 1930 to pursue a career in art and hooked up
with Thomas Hart Benton. Benton is the quintessential "regionalist"
artist of the 1930s, a school that had an uneasy relationship to the
"socialist realism" promoted by the Communist Party. After the Popular
Front turn, the uneasiness broke down as the Communist Party became
convinced almost overnight on the "progressive" character of the
American ruling-class. If FDR was another Abe Lincoln, then surely it
made sense to embrace the national traditions that made such exemplary
politicians possible. Thomas Hart Benton, the son of a famous
abolitionist (and Indian-hating) Senator, was made to order for this
cultural turn. While Benton was no Marxist, his paintings did have a
populist character that were more in tune with the Progressivist
traditions of the turn-of-the-century than the Marxist 1930s. He did
pass muster, however.
Pollock apprenticed with Benton on a set of murals for the 3rd floor
of the New School for Social Research begun in 1930, and where I got
my MA in philosophy in 1967. I never paid much attention to the Benton
murals or the Orozco mural on the floor above it. I was too busy
scheming how to get out of the war in Vietnam. Benton's theme was
technology and the transformation of American society. As any good
progressive would, Benton emphasized the working-class in the murals,
and used Pollock as a model for a steelworker in one panel. Although
this essay is really not about aesthetics, you can see Benton's
influence on Pollock through the undulating forms of the various
workers on girders or in steel furnaces. I couldn't find a website
that had this mural, but http://www.emory.edu/CARLOS/gif/paper18A.gif
has a work titled "Night Firing" that is representative of the Benton
style. The circular patterns, detached from their figurative frame of
reference, become a recurring image in Pollock's work.
Pollock stayed in touch with the Los Angeles art scene through
frequent reunions with an old friend and fellow painter Reuben Kadish,
who was a Communist. When Pollock spent the summer of 1931 in Los
Angeles, Kadish filled him in on Siqueiros, who had been exiled from
Mexico and had started a workshop there. Kadish had helped Siqueiros
on several murals, just as Pollock had assisted Benton. One,
Crucifixion, depicted the Latin American peoples bound to a cross and
above them, vulture-like, was the eagle of US capitalism.
Four years later Siqueiros moved to NY, where he threw himself in the
middle of the radical art movement of 1936. By this time, Pollock had
moved beyond Benton's formalism and was consciously imitating the
Mexican mural style, as well as being on the WPA payroll. Thus he
eagerly applied for membership in Siqueiros's workshop and became a
part of the inner circle. Their collaboration for a May Day float that
year should give you some idea of Jackson Pollock's enthusiasms for
the left, according to the Naifeh/Smith biography:
<startquote>
Throughout April. as preparations for the May Day celebrations
accelerated and the workshop staff swelled with volunteers, Jackson
spent most of his time on the wood-frame armature for the chicken-wire
and papier-maché float. The design, conceived by Siqueiros and his
entourage, called for a large central figure representing a Wall
Street capitalist holding in his outstretched hands a donkey and an
elephant--indicating that "as far as the working class was concerned,
both political parties were controlled by enemies of the people" and a
large ticker-tape machine which, when struck by a giant, movable
hammer emblazoned with the Communist hammer and sickle, would break
apart and spew tape over the capitalist figure. Siqueiros called it
"an essay of polychromed monumental sculpture in motion" and intended
it to represent both the enormous political power of Wall Street and
the unity of the North American peoples in their determination to
overthrow the capitalist system.
<endquote>
While Pollock was evolving politically and artistically, he was
constantly gripped by bouts of depression that only alcohol could
relieve. By the mid-1930s, he had been diagnosed as an alcoholic and
hospitalized. In a last-ditch effort to exorcise his demons, he hooked
up with a Jungian therapist who would have a major impact on his
development as an artist.
Dr. Joseph Henderson decided that the key to Pollock's recovery was
through the exploration of his artwork, which would serve as a
periscope into his unconscious, like dreams in Freudian therapy. (Yes,
I know all this sounds fairly nutty, but this was before medications
like prozac were introduced and when the medical profession was
clutching at straws.) Since the therapist beckoned Pollock to dig
deeper and deeper into his subconscious, the artist found himself
creating more and more dreamlike and abstruse images to satisfy the
inquisitive therapist.
The real creative breakthrough came completely by accident. As a
child, Henderson had a Navajo nanny and had become obsessed with
American Indian culture. Also, since Jungian theory posited the notion
that a colonizing people "inherit" the racial memory of the natives
they displace, the therapist assumed that Pollock's unconscious
contained American Indian imagery and ordered him to "dredge it up."
(Yes, this is extremely bizarre. Try to imagine someone like Teddy
Roosevelt "inheriting" the racial memory of all the dead Apaches...)
While poor Pollock could not come up with anything that vaguely
resembled indigenous art, he did begin to explore native art on his
own. Influenced by Henderson, he began to study Navajo sand paintings.
He also began to haunt the Museum of Natural History and was fixated
on the artwork of the Kwakiutl, Bella Coola, Haida, Tsimshian and
Tlingit tribes. Pollock came to the realization that he was yearning
for the same kind of shamanic power that these artists had achieved
and began to think of his artwork as the analogy of that of tribal
artists. By digging into his own subconscious and by seeking oneness
with nature, he would achieve the same kind of power that he saw in
the museum pieces.
It is singularly ironic that Pollock would gravitate toward American
Indian artists, since fame or fortune were the last things on their
mind. Pollock was simply looking for a technique that could elevate
his work to a higher plane. The obsession with American Indian artwork
was based on almost total ignorance about their way of life,
characteristic not only of Pollock but other big-time artists and
critics as well. Abstract Expressionist superstar Barnett Newman wrote
in the 1947 essay "The Ideographic Picture":
"The Kwakiutl artist painting on a hide did not concern himself with
.. inconsequentials...The abstract shape he used, his entire plastic
language, was directed by a ritualistic will towards metaphysical
understanding. The everyday realities he left to the toy-makers; the
pleasant play of non-objective pattern basket weavers. To him a shape
was a living thing, a vehicle for an abstract thought-complex, a
carrier of the awesome feelings he felt before the terror of the
unknowable."
Although I think Freud is pretty silly most of the time, I will state
that Newman's remarks are a clear example of what Freud called
"projection". Newman projects onto Indian artists--and only men, at
that--the sort of romantic individualism that had no place in Indian
society. Indian artists were part of a collective. Everything they did
was part of a sacred circle, which made no distinction between
painting or basket-weaving. Nobody got paid. Their only reward was
having their basic needs--shelter, food, companionship--met in an
atmosphere of mutual respect.
The Abstract Expressionists were interested in one thing and one thing
only: success. Whether the means to get there were American Indian
artistic techniques, Jungian subconscious images or splattering paint
across a canvas, the end was what counted. These artists, just like
the working class who had discovered wartime prosperity, were
reconciling with American society and all its blandishments. If the
workers would stop messing around with Communist politics, they could
enjoy a shiny new automobile and a house in the suburbs. As far as the
radical artists were concerned, there was a place at the table for
them as well. All they needed to do was behave themselves and stay
free of the Communist Party. If they wanted to be rebellious, then the
proper avenue would be the artistic avant-garde stripped of all
political associations. Pollock exemplified this turn by breaking his
ties with the left and concentrating on turning out one drip painting
after another. He was a hot commodity in the late 1940s as the Cold
War shifted into high gear.
Pollock's drive to "make it" was legendary. The audio tour at the
current major exhibition of his work at the Museum of Modern Art
mentions that he sought to displace Picasso as the foremost artist of
the age. (Doesn't this sound a bit Oedipal? Who knows, that Freud
might not be totally screwed up after all.) Long before the time he
reached the top of the mountain, all pretensions to embodying
spiritual or shamanic or Jungian archtypal values had been dropped.
Pollock had become a businessman whose main product were drip
paintings. Naifeh/Smith describe Pollock's profit-making initiatives:
<startquote>
Inevitably, Jackson's preoccupation with new buyers and marketing
strategies followed him into the studio. There, despite Greenberg's
rhetoric and Tony Smith's encouragement, he eschewed mural-size
projects like Pasiphae (5' by 8') and Lucifer (3½' by 9') and
concentrated instead on producing a number of smaller, more accessible
works. It was a marketing lesson first learned from Howard Putzel, who
had constantly badgered his artists to produce "smaller works for
timid collectors." Peggy [Guggenheim] herself had often complained
about the difficulty of selling Jackson's giant canvases.
<endquote>
Like any other businessman, Pollock had competitors. In the heyday of
Abstract Expressionism, it was possible for one artist to leapfrog
over another in terms of fame and fortune. Pollock's 1950 show was
neither a financial or critical success. In the March 1, 1951 Vogue
Magazine he allowed his paintings to be used as a backdrop for a
fashion shoot by Cecil Beaton, the Richard Avedon of the time. Pollock
had come a long way from working on May Day floats.
In his waning years, he became more and more desperate to protect his
turf, although renewed drinking weakened his competitive edge. In no
time at all, Jackson Pollock had fallen out of fashion and he had
become a pathetic figure by 1952 as Naifeh/Smith relate:
<startquote>
The search was growing increasingly desperate. Whether out of spite,
incompetence. or circumstance, Parsons had sold virtually nothing
during the second half of the season. In a last-ditch effort to
prevent other artists from bolting, she had borrowed $5,000 from a
childhood friend and bought three Rothkos and three Stills--but no
Pollocks... For the first time since the forties. Jackson considered
designing textiles to supplement his income. He talked vaguely about
finding a teaching job and asked Jeffrey Potter if he needed an extra
hand around the farm. For a while. be even toyed with an offer from
the Armstrong Rubber Company to create designs for a new line of
linoleum. The combination of uncertainty over a dealer and perilous
finances left him, according to one of his few guests that spring.
"exhausted and fatigued." And obsessed. Galleries and dealers were all
he could think about. Tony Smith. who still visited occasionally,
complained that "Jackson spent the whole damn day talking about
galleries.... 'Which one would be the best one for me?' and 'What are
they doing?' and so on and so on like he was making a shopping list...
.It was just a lot of ambitious, selfserving nonsense.
<endquote>
Capitalism will do that to you. Three years later Jackson Pollock was
killed in an automobile accident along with a woman he had just had a
weekend tryst with. He was driving while drunk. In my next post, I
will examine the work of Ben Shahn, who came from a similar place
socially and politically as Jackson Pollock but who stayed true to his
roots.
(A cyber-version of the Jackson Pollock exhibition is at
http://www.moma.org and I encourage everybody to examine it.)
--Louis Proyect
(For Marxist discussion: www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)
Hunter H. Watson
ln...@columbia.edu wrote:
If FDR was another Abe Lincoln, then surely it
made sense to embrace the national traditions that made such exemplary
> politicians possible. Thomas Hart Benton, the son of a famous
> abolitionist (and Indian-hating) Senator, was made to order for this
> cultural turn. While Benton was no Marxist, his paintings did have a
> populist character that were more in tune with the Progressivist
> traditions of the turn-of-the-century than the Marxist 1930s. He did
> pass muster, however.
>
> Clip
> As any good
> progressive would, Benton emphasized the working-class in the murals,
> and used Pollock as a model for a steelworker in one panel. Although
> this essay is really not about aesthetics, you can see Benton's
> influence on Pollock through the undulating forms of the various
> workers on girders or in steel furnaces. I couldn't find a website
> that had this mural, but http://www.emory.edu/CARLOS/gif/paper18A.gif
> has a work titled "Night Firing" that is representative of the Benton
> style. The circular patterns, detached from their figurative frame of
> reference, become a recurring image in Pollock's work.
There are four interesting Bentons at: http://www.artchive/B/benton.html
My favorite is "Persephone" which can't be said precisely to emphasize
the working class but surely does include a representative thereof.
H. W.
Hunter H. Watson
"Hunter H. Watson" wrote:
> ln...@columbia.edu wrote:
>
> If FDR was another Abe Lincoln, then surely it
> made sense to embrace the national traditions that made such exemplary
>
> > politicians possible. Thomas Hart Benton, the son of a famous
> > abolitionist (and Indian-hating) Senator, was made to order for this
> > cultural turn. While Benton was no Marxist, his paintings did have a
> > populist character that were more in tune with the Progressivist
> > traditions of the turn-of-the-century than the Marxist 1930s. He did
> > pass muster, however.
> >
> > Clip
>
> > As any good
>
> > progressive would, Benton emphasized the working-class in the murals,
> > and used Pollock as a model for a steelworker in one panel. Although
> > this essay is really not about aesthetics, you can see Benton's
> > influence on Pollock through the undulating forms of the various
> > workers on girders or in steel furnaces. I couldn't find a website
> > that had this mural, but http://www.emory.edu/CARLOS/gif/paper18A.gif
> > has a work titled "Night Firing" that is representative of the Benton
> > style. The circular patterns, detached from their figurative frame of
> > reference, become a recurring image in Pollock's work.
>
> There are four interesting Bentons at: http://www.artchive/B/benton.html
>
> My favorite is "Persephone" which can't be said precisely to emphasize
> the working class but surely does include a representative thereof.
>
> H. W.
If that url doesn't work try a search for Mark Harden's texas.net Museum of
Art
H.W.
Marc Viglielmo
ln...@columbia.edu wrote:
Douglass was nominated by the Equal Rights Party as Woodhull's
running-mate, but he declined the nomination. He still favored the
Republicans at the time. I recommend reading Lois Beach Underhill's
The Woman Who Ran for President: The Many Lives of Victoria Woodhull.
Marc Viglielmo