Page 26 - Studio International - December 1972

do not go so far in the direction of Jung's reference to the She-Wolf occurs in his and enjoyed the effect of its partial obliteration.
non-figuration. One which at first sight looks discussion of the Hiawatha myth: the hero is not The aggressive overpainting of red, white, grey
as if it has no figurative connotations reveals a born like an ordinary mortal because the birth and black is not so brutally dissociated from the
head and at least one hand, as well as Pollock's is a rebirth from the mother-wife. That is why previous layers as it is in She-Wolf. Its main
name written in shaky mirror writing (perhaps the hero so often has two mothers . . . . the hero function is to carve up the central panel and
left-handedly ?) except for the '-son' of Jackson is frequently exposed and recovered by create the dog which lies under it.
which is written normally. This strange and foster-parents. In this way he gets two mothers The most striking formal characteristic of the
deliberately concealed signature calls to mind . . . the foster-mother is sometimes an animal, painting is its symmetry. Although Pollock often
Leonardo's notes and it may have grown out of eg the she-wolf of Romulus and Remus etc.'24 used the device of separate panels within a
experiments with automatism, or maybe from If we pursue the notion that Pollock's themes picture, derived in part from Orozco's mural
the reversed dates and signatures on some of are a metaphor for his own inner life, his style and his own experience of collage, there is
Picasso's prints, particularly The Dream and Lie concern with the fostering of the hero not only little evidence of the symmetry of The
of Franco. It is interesting that the element of follows naturally on from works which have a Guardians of the Secret in his previous work.
his name which is recognizable is 'son'. bearing on birth but it also coincides with his The inspiration for it must lie in the meaning
The May gouache shows that this collage 'adoption' by Peggy Guggenheim. She first of the work itself. The source of the imagery can
interlude profoundly affected Pollock's style, seems to have become interested in him in early be found in the same chapter of Jung's
and traces of it are visible in the next spring when she invited him to exhibit the 'Psychology of the Unconscious' as that which
`mythological' painting, She-Wolf. It appears collage, followed by the exhibition of one work has provided all the imagery for the
to have been started in the gay abstract style in her 'Spring Salon for Young Artists' in May 'mythological' paintings. Jung writes :
only to be brutally overpainted by the image of and June. He signed a contract with her in July. '. . . . a second Cerebos, akin to the jackal
the She-Wolf in a return to figuration. However This adoption may have been the experience headed Anubis of the Egyptians. The dog and
attractive abstraction was, it seems that for his which caused him to paint out the gouache- the underworld serpent are identical
major statements Pollock felt compelled to style painting he had started perhaps in late Snakes and Dogs are guardians of the treasure
return to figuration, which argues against those May or early June, and paint the She-Wolf. The . . . The sacred cave in the temple at Cos
who see the work of this period as loosely She-Wolf is also, of course, a ferocious 'anima' consisted of a rectangular pit covered by a stone
evocative. It is true that Pollock himself said: image of the all-devouring mother in the hero's slab with a square hole in it . . . . The snake lies
`She-Wolf came into existence because I had to unconscious, as Jung points out.25 on the treasury as a protector of the hoard.'28
paint it. Any attempt on my part to say Although it bears the same date, 8.43, This is not to imply that The Guardians of the
something about it, to attempt an explanation The Guardians of the Secret follows She-Wolf, Secret owes its format directly to that
of the inexplicable, could only destroy it.'20 But albeit closely.26 Lee Krasner has said that description of the sacred cave, despite its
this only means that Pollock was not prepared Pollock did not date his pictures on evocative 'rectangular pit', rather one should
to explain it, not that it had no meaning nor completion but that he became panicky as turn to the whole Middle Eastern mortuary cult
that the meaning is too vague — it may indeed exhibition dates drew near, and signed and which Jung's words invoke. The jackal god
have been too precise for a man who is known to dated them then.27 There are three paintings Anubis is clear and the symmetrical divisions
have been extremely reserved. The meaning is dated 8.43: She-Wolf, The Guardians of the are like those of Egyptian mortuary monuments.
given away, as in the Moon Woman series, by Secret and Search for a Symbol. From the The hieroglyphics, which like the left-handed
the particularity of the title, and as Frank evidence discussed above I would suggest that writing constitute a form of secret veiled code,
O'Hara has pointed out21 almost the only She-Wolf was finished just before this date and also direct one's attention toward ancient Egypt.
she-wolf in popular mythology is the foster- that The Guardians of the Secret is therefore The secret being so carefully guarded Jung
mother of Romulus and Remus, the hero- dated about right, but the date of Search for a interprets as the unconscious; heroes harrowing
founders of ancient Rome. Symbol remains problematic and will be hell or sojourning in the underworld are
There had been animal images in Pollock's considered later. delving into their own unconsciouses and
work before this painting, but the wolf as a In The Guardians of the Secret, as in She-Wolf, dredging up the hidden sources of their
motif seems to be a new departure,22 apart Pollock seems to have begun with an creativity,29 a journey which for Jung means a
from some drawings which might depict dogs. underpainting, perhaps because he anticipated return to the Mother because of the 'anima'
It is possible that works in New York galleries
may have stimulated him, especially as one was
a recent acquisition by the Museum of Modern
Art of a Mexican artist, Tamayo. Animals was
acquired in March 1942 but not exhibited until
March 31, 1943 in the Museum's 'Latin
American Collection' show. The style, colour,
form and concept of Tamayo's work are all
different from Pollock's, but the subject and his
admiration for Mexican art may have influenced
him. The other more convincing visual source
is the Frick Collection's two Renaissance
bronze versions of the famous Capitol she-wolf.
The Frick Collection's two versions, like
Pollock's, do not include the suckling infants.
Lee Krasner has said that her husband was an
enthusiastic' gallery-goer and that it is almost
certain that he would have seen these bronzes.23

Pasiphaë 3943
Oil on canvas, 56 1/8 x 96 in.
Marlborough-Gerson Gallery Inc., New York
220