Robert Arneson's ceramics pay tribute to Jackson Pollock

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COLUMN BYL. KENTWOLGAMOTT

Artists are usually quick to acknowledge influences on their work.But few, if any, have displayed their affinity with another artist more explicitly than did Robert Arneson, who created 80 pieces in homage to Jackson Pollock over a 10-year-period.

One of the most impressive of Arneson's large ceramic tributes to Pollock, 1987's "Born to Raise Hell," is now on view at the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery as an addition to "Big Idea:The Maquettes of Robert Arneson," an exhibition of the late Bay Area artist's small models that will be at the museum through May 16.

"Born to Raise Hell" consists of a large ceramic "mask" of Pollock's face atop a redwood base that essentially serves as a tombstone.

Carved on the left side of the base is "Jan. 28, 1912 Cody, Wyo.," a reference to Pollock's birth, with a classic nude male figure pouring water out of a jar cut into the wood below.

On the right side of the base is "Aug. 11, 1956 Fireplace Rd East Hampton, Long Island about 10 p.m.," the details of Pollock's death.

In the center of the base is inscribed "J P Born To Raise Hell."

The large Pollock mask is heavily worked and deeply furrowed and lined, capturing the anguished, haunted Pollock in the years immediately preceding his death in an automobile accident. The eyes are holes, reflecting a kind of emptiness, and in the back of the mask is a bottle marked with "X X X," a reference to the heavy drinking that propelled the abstract expressionist master to his untimely demise.

The overall dark, brooding impression left by "Born to Raise Hell" is an appropriate reading of Pollock, getting at some of the internal turmoil that pushed his art, but ended his life.

A powerful work of art about an artist, "Born to Raise Hell" is complemented by the maquettes of other Arneson Pollock pieces that are part of the show, including a trio of powerful drawings.

"Jackson Pollock #1 (JP1)" from 1983 has tightly rendered views of Pollock's face and his left hand holding a cigarette. His torso is made up of intertwined lines of color and spattered drops, imitating his famous "drip" painting style.

One of Pollock's paintings shows up in the collage "Boots of J.P." (1987), on which a small reproduction of "Autumn Rhythm," one of his three famous 1950 drip-painted masterpieces, is pasted over the toes of a pair of boots in the working drawing for a large ceramic piece.The model for that piece, "Boots with Echo," sits nearby.

The third drawing is Arneson's interpretation of the Pollock painting "Last of the Great Buffalo Hunters," which Arneson turned from flat into three dimensions. His most complex work in that vein is "Guardians of the Secret II,"the 1990 maquette of which is on view at Sheldon.

In the final version of "Guardians of the Secret II," a 7-by-10-by-2-foot piece now in a San Francisco museum, Arneson inserts his own head into Pollock's painting, further identifying with the artist with whom he shared a rugged independence and desire to consistently break new ground.

The final set of small objects relate directly to "Born to Raise Hell."There are three small models of Pollock's head, including one of "Dead Pollock" and a pair of maquettes of "Jackson's '50 Olds Convertible Aug. 11, 1956"- the car he crashed when he died.

There is a persuasive argument to be made that much of post- World War II art is art about art. But that direct connection between a younger artist's work and those who have come before is rarely expressed as explicitly as Arneson reflected his connection to Pollock. There are other maquettes that depict artists Arneson admired, including Francis Bacon and Pablo Picasso.But none are explored with the depth he devoted to Pollock, another clue to the deep connection Arneson had to have felt.

It is notable that, with the exception of pieces like "Guardians of the Secret," Pollock's paintings have little to do with Arneson's ceramics.The media are simply too different to have a great deal of visual overlap.

But the influence and affinity between Arneson and Pollock are obvious.That is very often the case with artists who find something to identify with and build upon in the spirit of another's work and life rather than drawing directly from the earlier artist's images and objects.

Dave Hickey, one of today's most illuminating and entertaining writers on art and culture, will speak on "Objects, Performances, Places: The Social Life of Genres" at Omaha's Joslyn Art Museum on May 26.The 6:30 p.m. talk will explore the relationship of the public and private art world as it expresses itself in objects and events.

Now professor of art criticism and theory at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Hickey has been a gallery owner in Austin, Texas, and New York City, served as executive editor of Art in America magazine, written for Rolling Stone, Art News, Artforum, Interview, Vanity Fair and The New York Times and has two books, including 1998's "Air Guitar: Essays on Art and Democracy."

Hickey has lectured extensively and has organized numerous exhibitions, including "BeauMonde," the fourth Site Santa Fe biennial.

Reach L. Kent Wolgamott at 473-7244 or kwolgamott@;journalstar.com.