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Pollock
OSS
Lee Pollock 2

forgotten about that first meeting. When he was invited to the McMillen show I was astonished because I thought I knew all the abstract artists in New York. You know, in those days one knew everyone. Well, I was in a rage at myself, simply furious because here was a name that meant nothing to me, All the more furious because he was living on 8th street, just two blocks down from me, and I lived at {unknown word, 9th?}. He and his brother Sandy and Sandy's wife had the top floor; each had half. As I came in, Sandy was standing at the top of the stairs, I asked for Jackson Pollock. and he said "You can try knockingover there, but I don't know if he's in." I later found out from Sandy that it mwas most unusual for Jackson to answer. When I knocked, he opened. In introduced myself and said we were both showing in the same show. I walked right in.
What did I think? I was overwhelmed, bowled over that's all. I saw all those marvelous paintings, I felt as if the floor was sinking when I saw those paintings. How could there be a painter like that that I didn't know about? I must have made several remarks on how I felt about the apaintings. I remember remarking on one, and he said "Oh I I'm not sure I'm finished with that one." I said "Don't touch it." Of course I don't know whether he did or not.
He was not a big man, but he gave me the impression of being big. About five feet 11, average, big-boned, heavy. His hands were fantastic, powerful hands, I wish there were photographs of his hands. All told he was physically powerful. And this ran through from the first time I met him until the day he died when there was quite a change in his physical appearance.
He was not in the war at the time I met him because he had been classified 4-F. He had been in Bloomingdale's for six months when he was 18 years old. And the alcoholic problem had been with him all his life.