Francis Bacon, Lee Krasner, Jackson Pollock and Agnes Martin

243 Pages·2014·47.36 MB·English

STUDIO HABITS
FRANCIS BACON, LEE KRASNER,
JACKSON POLLOCK AND AGNES MARTIN
A thesis submitted to the University of Manchester for
the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities
2014
Andrew Hardman
School of Arts, Languages and Cultures
Contents
List of figures ................................................................................................................... 3
Abstract .............................................................................................................................6
Declaration .......................................................................................................................7
Copyright Statement .........................................................................................................8
Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................9
About the Author .............................................................................................................10
Introduction .................................................................................................................... 11
1. Francis Bacon ................................................................................................................ 54
2. Lee Krasner ................................................................................................................... 97
3. Jackson Pollock ............................................................................................................138
4. Agnes Martin ................................................................................................................174
Conclusion ....................................................................................................................210
Bibliography .................................................................................................................231

Word count: 71259
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List of Figures
Fig. 1: The Francis Bacon Exhibit at Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane.
Photograph by Andrew Hardman..................................................................11
Fig. 2: The walls of the studio-barn at The Pollock-Krasner House and Study
Centre, Springs, Long Island, New York. Photograph by Andrew Hardman.
......................................................................................................................11
Fig. 3: The floorboards of the studio-barn at The Pollock-Krasner House and Study
Centre, Springs, Long Island, New York. Photograph by Andrew Hardman.
......................................................................................................................11
Fig. 4: Agnes Martin painting. Still from Agnes Martin: With My Back to the World
(2003, Dir. Mary Lance)...............................................................................11
Fig. 5: Francis Bacon (1984). Photograph by Hans Namuth ..................................15
Fig. 6: “Lenore Krasner, 1962” Photograph by Hans Namuth ...............................15
Fig. 7: Jackson Pollock (1951). Photograph by Hans Namuth ...............................16
Fig. 8: Agnes Martin (1973). Photograph by Alexander Liberman ........................16
Fig. 9: The Francis Bacon Studio at Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane ............ 55
Fig. 10: Frank Auerbach in his studio. From the Hugh Lane archive ...................... 60
Fig. 11: Cover of Pollock Painting (1980). From the Hugh Lane archive .............. 60
Fig. 12: Francis Bacon, Corner of the Studio (1934); Interior of a Room (1933);
Studio Interior (c.1934) .............................................................................. 62
Fig. 13: Francis Bacon, Two Figures (c.1952) ......................................................... 64
Fig. 14: Francis Bacon, Two Figures in the Grass (1954) ....................................... 64
Fig. 15: Bacon in the studio (Overstand Mansions, Battersea) (c.1955). Photograph
by Cecil Beaton ........................................................................................... 69
Fig. 16: Map of Bacon’s studios (and other relevant sites) pre-1961 ...................... 71
Fig. 17: The studio at Millais House ........................................................................ 72
Fig. 18: George Dyer in the Reece Mews studio. Photograph by John Deakin ....... 75
Fig. 19: Bacon in his studio (1952). Photograph by Henri Cartier-Bresson ............ 75
Fig. 20: Francis Bacon, Double Portrait (Auerbach and Freud) (1964) ..................77
Fig. 21: Francis Bacon's studio floor (c.1951). Photograph by Sam Hunter ............85
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Fig. 22: Edweard Muybridge’s series of photographs of two figures wrestling.
Taken from Edweard Muybridge, The Human Figure in Motion
(Dover Publications: New York, 1955) ....................................................... 88
Fig. 23: The Pollock-Krasner Studio by Maurice Berezov (undated).
From the Archives of American Art .............................................................98
Fig. 24: The rear of the Pollock-Krasner House .....................................................101
Fig. 25: Examples of materials in the studio at Springs...........................................101
Fig. 26: The National Historic Landmark plaque .................................................. 104
Fig. 27: A section of floorboards in the studio at Springs and Jackson Pollock, Blue
Poles (1952) ...............................................................................................107
Fig. 28: Lee Krasner, Gaea (1966) and the walls of the studio at Springs .............108
Fig. 29: The sitting room of the house ................................................................... 112
Fig. 30: Krasner's bedroom .................................................................................... 112
Fig. 31: Industrial paints and Krasner’s boots, trolley, paints and brushes ............ 116
Fig. 32: Krasner watching Pollock. Photograph by Hans Namuth (c.1951) .......... 118
Fig. 33: Krasner in her north-facing bedroom studio in the Springs house.
Photograph by Hans Namuth (c.1951) ...................................................... 118
Fig. 34: Lee Krasner in the studio (1956). Photograph by Waintrob Budd ............ 119
Fig. 35: Krasner in the studio (1958). Photograph by Hans Namuth ..................... 119
Fig. 36: Krasner in the studio (1956). Photograph by Maurice Berezov ............... 121
Fig. 37: Krasner in the studio (c. 1960-1961). Photograph by Paul De Vries ........ 121
Fig. 38: Lee Krasner's Manhattan studio (1972). Photograph by Ray Eames ....... 124
Fig. 39: Jackson Pollock, Number 29 (1950) ......................................................... 139
Fig. 40: Still taken from the out-takes of the Naumth-Falkenberg film [6.55] ...... 140
Fig. 41: Sheridan Lord and Cecil Downs Lord holding Number 29 (1950) behind the
Pollock-Krasner House, c.1956. Courtesy of the Pollock-Krasner Study
Center, Jackson Pollock Catalogue Raisonné Archives ............................ 140
Fig. 42: The floorboards of the studio-barn ........................................................... 147
Fig. 43: The masonite flooring and aluminium paint found on the concrete footings
....................................................................................................................147
Fig. 44: Still from the Namuth-Falkenberg film. [6.02] ......................................... 153
Fig. 45: Still from the Namuth-Falkenberg film. [7.06] ......................................... 153
Fig. 46: Still from the Namuth-Falkenberg film. [12.35] ....................................... 153
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Fig. 47: Pollock and Krasner in the studio-barn (c.1951). Photograph by Hans
Namuth ..................................................................................................... 165
Fig. 48: Agnes Martin, Tree (1965) ........................................................................ 176
Fig. 49: Three stills (41.15-42.16) from Agnes Martin: With My Back to the World
(dir. Mary Lance, 2003)..............................................................................183
Fig. 50: Martin's working-out sheets ...................................................................... 196
Fig. 51: Detail of Agnes Martin, Leaf (1965) ......................................................... 196
Fig. 52: Detail (bottom right corner) of Agnes Martin, Tree (1965) ...................... 203
Fig. 53: Thomas Demand, Barn (Scheune) (1997) ................................................ 211
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Abstract
This thesis is about studio habits. Specifically, it considers what happens in
practice in the artist's studio and ways in which creative acts have been visualised and
disseminated. The chapters of this thesis are organised around views of the studios of
four twentieth century painters: Francis Bacon (1908-1994), Lee Krasner (1909-1984),
Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) and Agnes Martin (1913-2005). Each of these artists'
studio habits has been fundamental to their respective mythologies and the studios they
occupied in their lifetimes have inflected discussion of their work. Drawing on critical
theories of sexuality, gender and space, this thesis argues that the idea of the artist as a
master continues to dominate as an explanation of art-making but that this
characterisation is called into question by these four artist's specific practices in the
studio. Close readings of the studio habits in these case studies, considered here as a
situated negotiation between artist and studio, challenges the idea of mastery that
studio-view exhibits and images tend to promote. Notions of mastery are inclined to
construct practice as a paradigm between an active artist and passive studio materials
and these, in turn, are apt to be read in terms of masculinity and femininity, respectively.
Thus, the role of studio artist has tended to privilege a male lead. Therefore, analysing
particular performances of masculinity by these artists provides a means to contest
reading studio-view images as statements of mastery and the damaging and inequitable
connotations this designation implies. Furthermore, this thesis argues that the recent
trend to preserve studio material, or to otherwise encompass traces of practice in
exhibits, films and photographs, may be correlated with theoretical shifts which took
place in latter half of the twentieth century as a response to philosophical losses entailed
in the critique of authority and objecthood and the rise of performance and conceptual
art practices.
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Declaration
No portion of the work referred to in the thesis has been submitted in support of an
application for another degree or qualification of this or any other university or other
institute of learning.
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Copyright Statement
I. The author of this thesis (including any appendices and/or schedules to this
thesis) owns certain copyright or related rights in it (the “Copyright”) and s/he
has given The University of Manchester certain rights to use such Copyright,
including for administrative purposes.
II. Copies of this thesis, either in full or in extracts and whether in hard or
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and Patents Act 1988 (as amended) and regulations issued under it or, where
appropriate, in accordance with licensing agreements which the University has
from time to time. This page must form part of any such copies made.
III. The ownership of certain Copyright, patents, designs, trade marks and other
intellectual property (the “Intellectual Property”) and any reproductions of
copyright works in the thesis, for example graphs and tables (“Reproductions”),
which may be described in this thesis, may not be owned by the author and may
be owned by third parties. Such Intellectual Property and Reproductions cannot
and must not be made available for use without the prior written permission of
the owner(s) of the relevant Intellectual Property and/or Reproductions.
IV. Further information on the conditions under which disclosure, publication and
commercialisation of this thesis, the Copyright and any Intellectual Property
and/or Reproductions described in it may take place is available in the
University IP Policy (see http://documents.manchester.ac.uk/DocuInfo.aspx?
DocID=487), in any relevant Thesis restriction declarations deposited in the
University Library, The University Library’s regulations (see
http://www.manchester.ac.uk/library/aboutus/regulations) and in The
University’s policy on Presentation of Theses.
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Acknowledgements
This thesis was supported by a Doctoral Award from the Arts and Humanities Research
Council (AHRC). The AHRC also funded research trips to Long Island, New York and
Dublin, Ireland.
Thanks for help, support and hospitality from Helen A. Harrison and Ruby Jackson at
The Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center, Springs, Long Island, New York, USA.
Thanks for help and support from the staff at Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane in
Ireland.
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About the Author
Andrew Hardman studied design and illustration and left higher education in 1994. He
returned in 2005, gaining a first class BA (Hons.) in History of Art and an MA in Art
History from the University of Manchester.
In addition to his research, Andrew runs a film and media company, Belle Vue
Productions, making research-led film content for education and the museum sector. He
is currently working on projects for the Institute for Cultural Practice (UoM), Tate
Liverpool and Grizedale Arts.
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