"In reality opposites are one; art shows this." —Eli Siegel

ART HISTORY & CRITICISM
Talks on the Siegel Theory of Opposites in Relation to Aesthetics

Jackson Pollock—and True and False Ambition: The Urgent Difference
By Dorothy Koppelman

I learned this from Eli Siegel in an Aesthetic Realism lesson and it is written down in capital letters in my notes: "THE BIGGEST SUCCESS — THAT WE LIKE THE WORLD THROUGH KNOWING IT."

I learned that the only way to like the world honestly is to see it as a oneness of opposites; and further, that seeing it this way is the means to honestly liking yourself. The more I study this Aesthetic Realism principle stated by Mr. Siegel, the more I am thrilled at its truth: "The world, art, and self explain each other: each is the aesthetic oneness of opposites."

I shall be talking tonight about my life, what a woman learned in Aesthetic Realism consultations and about the famous 20th century American artist whose works, as one critic put it, "embody the supreme level of pictorial ambition," and whose tumultuous life is the subject of the recent film made by Ed Harris.

I. Two Ambitions—One True and One False

Jackson Pollock early wanted to be a painter, and as artist he welcomed challenges, set himself new problems. He wanted a non-smooth life, drove in his old Ford across the country, went into the deserts, over the hills, welcomed the seeming impediments of a three-dimensional world as a means of freedom—he wanted to put opposites together.

Jackson Pollock's famous action paintings exemplify his true ambition—to like this world, and they are a thrilling sight of a man loving the way weight and lightness, thickness and airiness, impediment and release—are one in reality and showing them in tangible paint handled with a knowing technique.

Number 28, l950

In Number 28, l950 there is such a careless grace, a feeling of inevitability, a weaving in and out of those thick and thin black lines over a deep galaxy of silver and blue space.

What gives us such a lift are those solid, well placed, low and thick obstructions. But they don't hold us down! There is a whirling, wild sense of freedom here, and at the same a most cunning arrangement of space as to line, thick as to thin, rise as to fall, abrupt angle and surprising dash. Here, impediment is a means of freedom, and the artist's beautiful, central ambition is satisfied, and we are satisfied. We feel we can be ambitious to be free like that. It is a sign, as Eli Siegel has described, of the world itself making beautiful sense, and we like it.

But Pollock also went after contempt—he was surly as a child, and felt the way to be free was angrily to get rid of interferences, just annihilate things. How much did that swooping desire to get rid of a reality he saw as impeding him lead to his early drinking, which was to ruin his life?

This is a letter written as an 18 year old which shows both his true ambition, and how contempt was hurting him:

I shall be an Artist of some kind. If nothing else I shall always study the Arts. People have always bored me....I have been within my own shell and have not accomplished anything materially. In fact, to talk in a group I was so frightened I could not think logically....

II. Our True Ambition—to Put Opposites Together in Ourselves

In December of 1955, Mr. Siegel wrote the definitive essay, "Beauty and Jackson Pollock, Too" which placed the artist in the tradition of painting, with a beautiful respect for the deepest ambition of a person. Mr. Siegel said about Pollock:

The unconscious, as artistic, goes after unrestraint, but unrestraint as accurate; and when unrestraint is accurate, the effect on mind is still that of beauty. And:—if his work is successful, there is in this work, power and calm, intensity and rightness, unrestraint and accuracy—and these, felt at once, make for beauty.

This is Autumn Rhythm with "intensity and rightness" —

And here is a detail:

In Number 1, 1948, with its joyous "unrestraint and accuracy' we see the ambition of ourselves given visual, beautiful form:

But the sad separation of opposites in Pollock can be seen in this description by a friend:

He had relatively few interests. He saw things as having no real connection with one another;

However, a fellow painter described the artist as he worked, "Pollock danced some of the most beautiful paintings in the world." In this photograph we see that action which made for the name "Action Painting":

[You can view clips of Pollock painting on the Museum of Modern Art website, http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/pollock/website100/vid_clips.html]

This is a 1955 photograph taken by his friend Hans Namuth of Pollock in the famous Pollock Ford. His brow is furrowed, his long fingers somewhat limp.

Photograph by Hans Namuth

As he himself said, "The problem isn't painting, its what to do when you aren't painting."

And Jackson Pollock too often used his important hands to hit people. Once, when a fellow artist hit him back, Pollock, smiled and said "Thank you, but not so hard, not so hard." I think he was desperate to have someone honestly criticize him.

In an Aesthetic Realism class I asked Mr. Siegel about why a young artist I knew kept getting into fights with the people he saw as his friends. Mr. Siegel explained that the painter punished himself for being untrue to himself, by insulting people so much they would throw him out. I believe this explains what Jackson Pollock did.

He never got the comprehension or the criticism that he wanted and the conflict between a true and a false ambition literally knocked him out—he couldn't, after a while tell the difference, and began to feel nothing mattered anymore. He didn't know he wanted to like the world in the minutes and days of his life, and had no idea this might be possible.

III. How Two Ambitions Fought in Him—the Fight We All Have

Jackson Pollock was born in Cody, Wyoming, one of five sons to Stella McClure and LeRoy McCoy Pollock. The family moved early to Arizona, and then California. It was in Arizona that Pollock saw Indian sand paintings. The method of drawing on the land itself—having colored sand run through one's fingers—affected him and his method of doing large works right on the floor and using tools, trowels, sticks rather than brushes.

Jackson's father was said to be a gentle, melancholy man, a farmer and later a land surveyor. He did not work steadily, their farm was auctioned and two of the older brothers worked on road gangs. In letters, Pollock worried about the coldness between father and mother. I think he did what Aesthetic Realism explains—he used the confusions he saw around himto build up a case against the world.

In the B.H. Friedman biography, his wife, Lee Krasner Pollock is quoted as saying "when he was quiet, he was quieter, and when he was angry he was angrier than others." Pollock got a satisfaction out of breaking through what he saw as people's false fronts—but then, feeling ashamed because his purpose was not to have people stronger, but to glorify himself through exposing their weaknesses, he drank to get rid of "encumbrances" and " be free." At the same time, like two of his brothers, he went to art school in California, studied seriously, including doing extremely careful anatomy drawings. Pollock came to New York and in 1941 showed his first painting here. This is the year that Lee Krasner, a young painter herself, tells how she met, saw and fell in love with the artist and his work. This was also the year Eli Siegel founded Aesthetic Realism. Together Pollock and Krasner could have studied the Aesthetic Realism principle Mr. Siegel stated in 1941: "The resolution of conflict in self is like the making one of opposites in art." — Were it not for the killing snobbishness of the art world, including his wife, and likely the artist, as well as the press keeping Aesthetic Realism from reaching people, Jackson Pollock's life would have been different—it might have lasted longer.

Jackson Pollock got fame. He is seen now as having changed the course of painting! By the time he was 35, in 1947 Life and Time had articles with headlines like "Pollock Drools Enamel Paint on Canvas." — Is he the greatest American painter?

In an Aesthetic Realism lesson Eli Siegel said to me:

There are two kinds of success. There are the outward things, the things that get into Who's Who. These ways of judging are much in operation, they're the way of the world. Then there's respect for integrity. Is there a conflict in you between integrity and ambition? Is there a way of combining a feeling of integrity with the desire for success-!

I was encouraged to see my purpose as a painter in a way that is new in history, and to have the same purpose in ordinary life. It is my fervent ambition always to be true to what I have learned and am learning now.

Unfortunately, Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner Pollock did not learn what they most needed to know. He got more angry, had more contempt for people as he was lionized and his self was unseen. He drank more, and there was fury and silence between them as they came to New York every Monday for appointments with his therapist, after which she would go home, and he went to the Cedar Bar.

There was no true criticism and finally contempt and alcohol won over painting and life itself. Lee Krasner left Pollock; and his boredom, and then anger and a desire to annihilate everything became more intense. In Eli Siegel's essay "Alcoholism, or, You Got to Find the World Interesting," he explains:

The problem of alcoholism...won't be solved until people can see in the ordinary universe a zip, a tingle, a blandishment, a satisfaction they don't find now. And, he writes, When [a person] drinks, the hesitations, immunities, enclosures, drawbridges locks, walls, hindrances, fears and jams are felt to be unnecessary. But as artist Jackson Pollock loved "drawbridges ... walls," and "locks and jams" and saw these impediments as a means of freedom. Pollock needs the hard floor under the canvas as he kneels, uses a stick. We can see in Lucifer. How the artist likes to have lines and colors, cross over, hit one another, separate, weave in and out, stop, even tangle, and continue.

Lucifer

He trails that paint, which, as black is even more dense, until it is so thin it almost disappears and then becomes white.

When blackness is seen as thin, and whiteness is seen as thick, heaviness and lightness become one.

As the paint is dropped, twirled, gently directed by a thoughtful hand, the opposites within a substance are given form, not "annihilated." The thick black makes for an awkwardness, but it is part of a graceful motion. The layers do not obstruct; things are revealed, not removed. Impediment is related to airiness, welcomed as the necessary ingredient of true freedom—that is, liking the world with no evasions.

IV. Aesthetic Realism Consultations; or, Her Ambition Was Understood

I am very grateful—and that gratitude increases each year of my marriage to my husband, Chaim Koppelman, fellow student of Aesthetic Realism, fellow artist, and fellow consultant. We learned from Eli Siegel in Aesthetic Realism lessons that the purpose of marriage was to use one another to like the whole world—and learning that made us closer, kinder, and now we are so glad to teach men and women what we know will meet their hopes: the only purpose adequate to the deepest ambition of the whole self is to like the world through knowing it.

In her first Aesthetic Realism consultation Jean Hartman said she knew she really shouldn't complain. "My husband adores me," she said, "his business is very successful; I have a beautiful home, three beautiful children." She said in a bored way she could buy anything she wanted, and her husband was planning a trip to Hong Kong to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary. Meanwhile, she didn't feel good, and recently she found that at home during the day, she sort of lost touch with things.

Consultants. We will ask you the beginning Aesthetic Realism question: What do you have most against yourself?

Jean Hartman. I'm frustrated. I used to be content, but now nothing seems to satisfy me. I used to be more interested in the world. I was an avid reader, but these days I can't concentrate. One thing I do enjoy is shopping—but you can't do that forever either.

Consultants. Why do you think you don't see enough meaning in things now?
Jean Hartman. I don't even try to. I'm tired. By 4:30 I'm ready to stretch out.

We told Mrs Hartman we thought she was exhausted because she was going against her deepest ambition—to know the world, and instead, went after owning things without respect for the world they come from. She was very much affected hearing this.

We asked her: Do you think a person could lose touch with things as a way of telling herself that she has used them wrongly?

Jean Hartman. I've often wondered about that—its like I can't get away with something. Then, I have a big desire to retreat and then I feel bad.
Consultants. Do you think you are trying to tell yourself, "Don't retreat! Your deepest desire is to like the world and to use everything, including your husband for that purpose.

As Mrs. Hartman continued her study of what this means, her life changed dramatically. Max Hartman himself said of Aesthetic Realism Consultations, This is "what men are looking for" and "what the family needs most to study." Jean Hartman was so proud of her husband, she told us "I never felt so important. My marriage is really a success story!"

Blue Poles

Aesthetic Realism shows that what Jean Hartman wanted, what Lee Krasner and Jackson Pollock wanted is like the technique of art itself. It is in Jackson Pollock's beautiful painting Blue Poles.

Imagine it as almost as wide—as all his major works are—as this stage. This is a work of joyous criticism of fasle separation, because it includes, composes, enjoys so much!—Those red loops and dancing swirls of paint, meeting, crossing over, bumping into the thicker white skeins are almost like two things—the motion of couples on a dance floor, and also far-off galaxies. Pollock used glass shards and aluminum paint—and there is a sharpness and luminosity at once. The Blue Poles, spaced rhythmically apart—are both firm and affected by the whirling in the spaces around them. We can see that in the ribbon-like extensions, like pennants in a windy space, a space that has depths beyond what we see.

We told Jean Hartman, to "respect the world from which all things come, which includes the things and people close to you, your husband, is to feel a thrill at existence itself. The complexity of weaving here is a salute to reason and ecstasy as one thing. Aesthetic Realism explains that what makes Jackson Pollock so popular; it is because the dance of relation which is here and which shows us our greatest ambition—to see the world as it truly is—a dynamic presence and oneness of opposites.

Aesthetic Realism is the means for satisfying that ambition all the time, sitting here, walking down the street, talking to another person, in whatever one meets—and I am very happy to be able to say this.

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Selected Resources

Aesthetic Realism, Art, and Anthropology
John Singer Sargent's Madame X, an Aesthetic Realism Discussion by Lynette Abel
GERRIT RIETVELD'S RED AND BLUE CHAIR: What I Learned about Rest and Motion in Myself by Anthony Romeo, AIA