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American letters 1927–1947: Jackson Pollock and Family

S. Winter Pollock (ed.)

Before Jackson Pollock (1912–56) could conquer the New York art scene, he first had to get past his brothers. Jackson had four brothers – Charles, Frank, Marvin and Sanford – two of whom (Charles and Sanford) were painters.

The Pollock family lived in many states in the west of America, frequently relocating so the father could find work. The sons followed a similar pattern, criss-crossing America in search of employment in the depths of the Great Depression (which lasted from the Wall Street Crash of 1929 until around 1940). These family letters document their changes of location and fortune.

Charles, the eldest brother, went to study art in New York, later followed by Sanford. Charles’ drawings are included as illustrations and demonstrate him to be a skilled realist, at his best in portraits.  Jackson, the youngest brother, was greatly impressed Charles’ example and in 1929 wrote to him a (now lost) letter. Charles replied ‘I am delighted that you have an interest in art. Is it a general interest or do you consider you may wish to become a painter?’ He admitted that he hardly knew his brother, so dispersed had the family become. He went on to encourage Jackson, supplying advice and introducing him to contacts.

During the interwar period American art was split largely between two tendencies: Regionalists (realists who favoured typically American subjects – often ones with rural or pioneering overtones) and Social Realists (who painted scenes of everyday life and allegories with an overtly political intent, leftist in character, heavily influenced by Mexican muralists of the era). More advanced modernism and abstract art were peripheral to the American art scene until 1939, when many leading European artists arrived in America, having escaped the war. Charles was firmly under the influence of his teacher, Thomas Hart Benton, a prominent Regionalist, while Sanford was closer to the Social Realists. (A few of Hart Benton’s letters are included in this book.) During Jackson’s formative period he swung between the two approaches. He studied under Hart Benton and undertook journeys to sketch the American heartland. Back in New York, he and Sanford assisted Mexican socialist artist and political activist David Alfaro Siqueiros (1896–1974) in constructing floats for a May Day workers’ parade.

Through the letters we get vivid impressions of the characters of the brothers and those of their wives, their mother Stella and father LeRoy (who died in 1933). The letters are full of the business of everyday life: payments, health, employment, family news. Another layer is politics. All the family – including spouses – were socialists (some of them Communists) and all were politically aware. Some were politically active: organizing or participating in labour events, writing journalism and propaganda. As well as commenting on American politics and the labour movement, they write of their dismay over the Moscow show trials, the Spanish Civil War and the rise of fascism. Thus we have a part of history (aspirational working-class socialists in Depression-era America) that is not always fully acknowledged today.

Jackson himself was not much of a letter writer and the few letters here have been published before. Set in the context of family correspondence his letters seem less baldly laconic. He never discusses his art at length. There is little or no comment regarding an early interest in Theosophy, Jungian analysis, engagement with modernism, experience of Hopi sand painting, meetings with American and foreign abstract artists and collaboration with peers.

One relationship that is covered is the friendship between Jackson, Sanford and Philip Guston. Guston studied with Jackson in Los Angeles and they developed a close (though competitive) relationship. At one point they shared a flat in New York, all three working on schemes run by Work Projects Administration (WPA –a ‘New Deal’ federal agency employing artists). Sanford wrote ‘Due to [WPA] investigations we have had to divide the apartment into three parts. Jack lives in the front section, Loie and I in the kitchen and bedroom with Phil stuck off in a dinky room at the end of the hall. Officially, we have no truck with one another. It seems kind of silly.’

The editorial methodology is not explained so the extent of the letters available is unclear. One wonders about the drop off in quantity during the 1940s (41 pages versus 144 pages of the 1930s) and the reasoning for selecting the particular letters reproduced here. Jackson Pollock: an American Sagaby Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smithwould make a useful companion to this volume, as it fully fleshes out background that the letters touch on briefly or cryptically or entirely pass over. American Letters provides an insight into American artists and society in this period rather than into the art itself. For those wanting to learn about the American art scene in the 1930s and 1940s this book provides firsthand testimony. For everyone else it is a section of social history and an enjoyable read.

American Letters 1927–1947: Jackson Pollock & Family, edited by S. Winter Pollock, is published by Polity Press 2011. 215 pp. 19 mono illus, £20.00 / €24.00 / $25.00. ISBN 978-0-7456-5155-2