06-11-2013
Reminiscing with Jackson Pollock
Pollock studio floor detail
I went with David, Steve and Andrew for a drive to East Hampton on Long Island Sound. We went to see the Pollock-Krasner House and Studio at 830 Springs-Fireplace Road where Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner lived and worked. Jackson had only two studios during his career, the first at 46 East 8th Street in New York City, and the other here on Springs. Despite his notoriety, he and Lee had little money. They bought the property for $5,000 with money they borrowed from Peggy Guggenheim.
Pollock-Krasner House, view from studio
The shingle-style house is set just off the road, and backs onto a salt marsh that runs into Accabonac Creek. Jackson and a friend collected several boulders and piled them into a circular mound to the side of the back porch. A few trees nearby look like bodies frozen in place, and the scene has the feel of some archetypal stage. It is the kind of place where there is a presence; where there is the weight of something having happened.
There is no doubt that the work of Jackson Pollock served to completely shift the course of modern art, creating a completely new language. We went into his studio – a converted barn to the left of the house -- where he painted from 1947-1956, and saw on the floor drips, splotches, and pools that were recognizable. We saw marks that were the residue from some of his most important paintings: Autumn Rhythm, Convergence, Blue Poles.
Pollock-Krasner studio
Jackson used enamel house paint for his canvases, along with sand, broken glass, and wood scraps. His paintings were fueled by excesses of feeling to make visible energy and motion. Emotion + the will + energy + motion = life. Life is the artifact. The studio floor is covered with evidence of this alchemy, his actions moving outside the frame of the canvas to the architecture and beyond.
Pollock studio floor detail
After his death in 1956, Lee moved her studio from the small second bedroom in the house to the barn. She eventually put heating in so she could work all year round. Unlike Jackson who unrolled his canvases on the floor to work, Lee hung hers on the walls. Traces of her work are left there for the visitor to see. While Jackson poured paint from cans, or squirt it out of turkey basters, or imprinted it with his hands or feet, Lee used brushes and gestures to mediate between the spirit and its expression.
Standing on the back porch, looking at the mound of rocks, the marsh, the circling forest, I could feel how a soul could be lit in this place night after night, and how the human drama of two artists trying to define their lives could play itself out before an audience of stars.
View of salt marsh from back porch
by Angelo Monaco
Pollock-Krasner House, view from studioThe shingle-style house is set just off the road, and backs onto a salt marsh that runs into Accabonac Creek. Jackson and a friend collected several boulders and piled them into a circular mound to the side of the back porch. A few trees nearby look like bodies frozen in place, and the scene has the feel of some archetypal stage. It is the kind of place where there is a presence; where there is the weight of something having happened.
There is no doubt that the work of Jackson Pollock served to completely shift the course of modern art, creating a completely new language. We went into his studio – a converted barn to the left of the house -- where he painted from 1947-1956, and saw on the floor drips, splotches, and pools that were recognizable. We saw marks that were the residue from some of his most important paintings: Autumn Rhythm, Convergence, Blue Poles.
Pollock-Krasner studioJackson used enamel house paint for his canvases, along with sand, broken glass, and wood scraps. His paintings were fueled by excesses of feeling to make visible energy and motion. Emotion + the will + energy + motion = life. Life is the artifact. The studio floor is covered with evidence of this alchemy, his actions moving outside the frame of the canvas to the architecture and beyond.
Pollock studio floor detailAfter his death in 1956, Lee moved her studio from the small second bedroom in the house to the barn. She eventually put heating in so she could work all year round. Unlike Jackson who unrolled his canvases on the floor to work, Lee hung hers on the walls. Traces of her work are left there for the visitor to see. While Jackson poured paint from cans, or squirt it out of turkey basters, or imprinted it with his hands or feet, Lee used brushes and gestures to mediate between the spirit and its expression.
Standing on the back porch, looking at the mound of rocks, the marsh, the circling forest, I could feel how a soul could be lit in this place night after night, and how the human drama of two artists trying to define their lives could play itself out before an audience of stars.
View of salt marsh from back porchby Angelo Monaco