Pollock's Paradigm

The Story of Pollock’s Paradigm
Pollock’s Paradigm A1
Size: 39 x 47 in (99.0 x 119.4 cm) on artboard
Fractal analysis completed by Professor Richard Taylor in April, 2005
Materials analysis completed 2010
Sixty Years of History - Wrapped in a Mystery
This is a remarkable story for art lovers, a story over half a century long,
made up of ugly history and a beautiful mystery. Sixty years ago the world of
art and imagery was a very different place. There were no personal computers
and no cell phones. Photographs were taken with film, and color film was
just coming into general use. Most painting was done on paper or canvas
with historically proven methods while new methods and materials were just
being introduced. One of the most publicized innovators at the time was
Jackson Pollock, famed for his outrageous behavior and remarkable new style
of painting. In the 1950s, art news was primarily reported in newspapers or
magazines, and no one had heard of the term digital. However provincial that
world may seem to us now, the news stories of the day were still dictated by
human events, and sadly too, by human nature. Thus unravels this shocking, yet
almost predictable tale.
In the sixty years that have passed, many stories have emerged of hidden
caches of work from famous artists, usually involving spurned wives or lovers,
or troves of work squirreled away by grocers, plumbers, or family members
unaware of the historical or monetary value of what they held. The story that is
about to unfold here makes all the others pale in comparison.
For this is not just a mystery, it is also a moral tale, with sixty years of elapsed
time and purposeful disinformation creating a very different version of the
last years of Jackson Pollock’s life. The facts surrounding the highly publicized
death of Jackson Pollock are clear. Yet the unknown truth about what he had
been doing in the last few years, and especially the last months before his death,
is shrouded in clouds of dissent, jealousy, and even ignorance. It is true that
this notorious artist was operating on his own rebellious and sometimes selfdestructive
course. But was he painting? The widow claims he was not. Friends
say he was. The newspapers of the day and subsequent books all agree that he
had separated from his wife, and had a new love interest in his life. Could this
have been the reason for a surge of inspiration and the impetus for a creative
burst? Many questions may be forever unanswered, but the truth that lay behind
the work that he created will stretch the limits of the imagination.
Does it make sense that an artist, who was frequently described as “driven”,
would abandon the work he loved? Doesn’t it seem just as possible that he had
been deliberately withholding work from his estranged wife, and from the art
world that he felt didn’t appreciate him? Who were his known associates, and
what did they have to say about his work? Clyfford Still was one.
Clyfford Still was a strong influence on Pollock for a period in the early
1950s, at a time when Pollock was infuriated by Lee Krasner, his brokers, and
the art world. Clyfford Still disdained art brokers, and was wary of the arts
establishment and the public. Only recently, with the opening of the Clyfford
Still Museum in Denver, Colorado in 2011, it was revealed that Still had withheld
94% of his work from the public during his lifetime (over 2000 works of
art). Did Still possibly influence Pollock to do the same?
The following passages from Stephen Naifeh and Gregory Smith’s Pulitzer
Prize winning biography of Jackson Pollock depict the influence that Still had
over Pollock during a particularly challenging time in Pollock’s life. (1952)
“Jackson sought refuge in new friends as well. Profoundly suggestible
and desperately in need of easy answers, he was inevitably drawn to
those who offered them. In the fall of 1952, he was drawn to Barnett
Newman and Clyfford Still.” page 688
Fingerprint detail
Hair used for DNA analysis
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Actual size detail
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