Читать книгу Pollock - Donald Wigal - Страница 35

After his first one-man show, Pollock was not yet an unqualified critical success. But, late in life, Guggenheim watched the prices of Pollock paintings grow to tremendous amounts. She commented, “I never sold a Pollock for more than $1,000 in my life.” (68) Art dealer Ben Heller likewise denied the rumour he made $4 million on his works by Pollock, adding: “I’ve been in hock for works of art since I started (collecting).”[76]

However, by donating Mural to the University of Iowa in 1948, Guggenheim was able to take a tax deduction of $3,100. On the other hand, she had given away countless Pollock works over the years, usually without realising any tax advantages[77]. For example, she gave Pollock’s Cathedral to Bernard and Becky Reis in 1949, who in turn later gave it to the Dallas Museum of Art. Cathedral was chosen to represent Pollock’s work in his biographical profile in Greenhill’s Dictionary of Art (39).

Guggenheim believed she owned the 1947 works, War, Composition, Shimmering Image, White Horizontal, and Sounds in the Grass: Eyes In the Heat (II).

She didn’t mention Alchemy which is another work often shown as typical of Pollock’s work from those peak years. In Steven Little’s book Isms (2004), the painting is shown to illustrate the ‘physicality and energy’ which is typical of much of Abstract Expressionism. The author then defines Jung’s concept of alchemy, as if the painting’s title had anything to do with the painting itself.

Untitled, c.1945 Ink and Gouache over engraving and drypoint, 40.6 × 59.7 cm, Private Collection.

Number 6, 1948: Blue, Red, Yellow, 1948. Oil and enamel on paper, mounted on canvas, 57.2 × 77.8 cm, Private Collection.

Number 34, 1949, 1949. Enamel on paper on masonite, 59.7 × 81.3 × 1.9 cm. Munson Proctor Art Institute, Museum of Art, Utica, New York.

Untitled (Cut-Out Figure), 1948–1950. Enamel, aluminum and oil paint, glass and nails on cardboard and paper, mounted on fiberboard, 78.8 × 57.5 cm, Private Collection.

Untitled (Cut-Out), 1948. Enamel, aluminum and oil paint, glass and nails on cardboard and paper, mounted on fiberboard, 78.8 × 57.5 cm, Ohara Museum of Art, Kurashiki, Japan.

Untitled (Shadows: Number 2, 1948), 1948. Oil and paper cut out on canvas, 136.5 × 111.8 cm, Private Collection.

Also painted in 1947 was Reflection on the Big Dipper. It was one of the works from this period critics, with the exception of Greenberg, loved to use to show off their clever phrases. Parker Tyler in Art Digest said, “Pollock’s current method seems to be a sort of automatism, apparently while staring steadily up into the sky, he lets go a loaded brush on the canvas. …probably it also results in the severest pain in the neck since Michelangelo painted the Sistine Ceiling.”[78]

Not many people actually liked Pollock’s earlier works, so the rare positive reaction to them is especially noteworthy. The fact that Putzel immediately used the word ‘genius’ to describe Pollock’s works is mentioned in most biographies of Pollock. Putzel’s personal epiphany is captured in plays, movies and most notably in Ed Harris’ film. They all follow, sometimes scrupulously, the comprehensive presentation in the Naifeh & Smith biography (72). The ‘genius’ moment is also pivotal in Updike’s novel[79].