Sunday, October 22, 2006

Stan Brakhage encounters Jackson Pollock

This is a quote from an "By Brakhage : an anthology" a two-disc set from Criterion. It is from Encounter I on disc 1 and takes place about 4 minutes into that encounter. Stan Brakhage is speaking of a trip that he made out to Jackson Pollock's place out on Long Island.

"But they [some New York painters] were like commenting and the used the words 'chance operations' which was no bother to me because I was hearing it regularly from John Cage. And the power and the wonder of it and so forth . . . but this really angered Pollock very deeply and he said 'Don't give me any of your "chance operations".' He said, 'You see that doorknob ' and there was a doorknob that was about fifty feet from where he was sitting that was in fact the door that everyone was going to have to exit be. and drunk as he was, he just with one swirl of his brush picked up a glob of paint, hurled it and hit that doorknob smack-on with very little paint over the edges. And then he said, 'And that's the way out'."

Labels: ,

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home