Customer Reviews

Tom and Jack: The Intertwined Lives of Thomas Hart Benton and Jackson Pollock

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In TOM AND JACK, Henry Adams, one of the creative contributors to the documentary Ken Burns' America: Thomas Hart Benton, takes a close look at the influence of Thomas Hart Benton on perhaps the greatest American artist of the twentieth century, Jackson Pollock. In this rich and insightful dual portrait, Adams first must rehabilitate Benton's reputation as a prolific, dynamic, and socially progressive realist who rose to fame as a WPA mural painter. Adams looks at Benton's expatriate experiences in Paris, the influence of the now forgotten school of Synchromism on his sense of dynamism, and examines Benton's eventual decline (dismissal really) in the eyes of fellow artists and east coast intellectuals. As a teacher at the Art Students League in New York, Benton enjoyed being an iconoclastic influence on his mostly male students. Pollock and Pollock's brothers, also artists, were part of this group. Although Benton and Pollock were quite different in many ways (Benton was quite learned and well read while Pollock was inarticulate, if not exactly illiterate), they were both highly driven artists who never really felt themselves to be artworld insiders. Adams is at his best when analysing the men's artwork, but he is equally comfortable exploring the psychology of their relationship. Since Pollock spent a good deal of time in psychotherapy, Adams's marshalling of Freudian and Jungian psychoanalytical theories as practiced in mid-century America is not out of place, and his presentation of Pollock's relatiohip with Benton and Benton's wife Rita as classically Oedipal is convincing.

In the first part of the book, Adams reveals the abstraction within Benton's realistic paintings; in the second part, he exposes the figurative and orderly elements hidden in Pollock's masterpieces. "It's telling," Adams writes, "that Pollock considered Einstein and Freud the two most important figures of modern times: one delved into the structure of the universe, the other into the structure of the unconscious. The power of Pollock's great drip paintings is that they seem to explore both these mysterious realms" (p. 324).

The book contains 16 pages of color reproductions, but I found it helpful to also consult Ellen Landau's Jackson Pollock, with its exquisite color plates of all of Pollock's major works. (I couldn't find anything comparable for Benton.) TOM and JACK also helped me to better understand Ed Harris's well-made but often elliptical film Pollock. Adams packs a lot into his 400-page dual biography. Its scholarship is well-considered and never bogs down the narrative; TOM AND JACK is a book I'm sure I'll return to again and again as I continue to study and enjoy the work of these two great American artists.

Henry Adams has provided the general reader with an interesting picture of Thomas Hart Benton, the most notable of the American Regionalists, and the major influences on his work. Recent generations of art-lovers need to be reminded of those who established an American art inter-penetrated by the vigorous traditions of Italy, France, Germany and the Low Countries as well as the more recent impact of Asian and African techniques. Particularly welcome is documentation of the influence of Morgan Russell and Stanton MacDonald-Wright on Benton's concept and methods. (Aficionados of the American detective story will be interested in the review of the art historical role of Stanton's brother, Willard, who, under the pseudonym S.S. Van Dine, created the first modern American Sherlock Holmes, Philo Vance, in best selling novels and popular films.) In his treatment of Benton, MacDonald-Wright, and Pollock, Adams suggests the important role of writers, critics, patrons, dealers,museum curators and mass media, in the making of art celebrity and success. Willard Wright was very useful to Benton in thsi regard as Greenberg was to Pollock later. In dealing with Benton, Adams is on firm ground, having written books and scholarly articles, and having been involved in a Ken Burns documentary on the subject. With Benton's artistic and personal character established, he turns to the complex figure which is Jackson Pollack. Here I feel the reader must be aware of the degree to which Adams is retailing documented facts as opposed to hypothesized causality and personal interpretation. He is openly opposed to some noted students of Pollock, and often must venture into the always shaky ground underlying the analysis of personality and intimate interrelationships. The story is well-told for the layman until he engages with structural analysis of picture making and psychological analysis of personality. These tend to be at a higher level of abstraction than the story telling and, therefore, for a layman, are more difficult to follow and more in need of the skeptical, "maybe he's right but I don't know enough to say". In so far as Adams discussion of the relationship of Pollock's fundamental "rules" of picture making and those of Benton, one need approach with particular caution (as Adams warns us). In what is considered the best of his pictures, Pollock followed the (unwritten) rule for writing books that admirably suit the demands of a social movement to find guidance in all possible situations, write it long, make it very complex, endow it with a high degree of ambiguity, and spread the net of your canvas of words over as many possibilities as you can. His so-called "great" paintings have the visual components of such an approach and, therefore, lend themselves to an infinity of "interpretations". In addition, as a matter of logic, the greater the abstraction of a verbal or visual stimulus, the greater the number of concrete situations it may refer to. At any rate, Adams concludes that Pollock was never the complete abstractionist, that all his major works contain within them the core of figuration, and that this figuration and the manner in which the whole is ordered, is a direct (and, of course, legitimate by a student with regard to a teacher) extension of what he learned from Benton.
All in all, a book that can be recommended to the general reader, interested in how people live, and the more specialized reader who wants to see what is the latest on the ever-developing mythology of Jackson Pollock.

This is simply a facinating book. It informs without overwhelming the reader on the line of influence from the Synchomists to Benton and on to Pollock in a logical way. The book is well written and captures the personalities of the various characters - and they were really characters - along the way from Willard Wright aka S.S. Van Dyne, Albert Barnes,Benton and his family and Pollock and his.

Tom and Jack by Henry Adams is sure to ruffle a few feathers, especially those die-hard Pollock fans who revel in the standard mythology regarding his career. I have read many, many books and articles on Pollock over the years so this one was refreshing because of the new information it presents. Adams has done a stellar job of defending his thesis: Pollock was influenced by both Benton and Synchromism both to a much larger degree than previously thought. Though at times Adams seems guilty of developing speculative arguments, he mostly sticks to the facts and definitely to the idea of proving his thesis. It's a great book and not only challenges previously held beliefs (that Pollock was a non-objective painter, for example) but, from my point of view, proves them wrong with room to spare. Highly recommended.

This book arrived in a timely manner and in good condition. I have already started reading it in time for my book club and love it. Thank you!

An exceptionally good study of the influences, especially that of Thomas Hart Benton, which culminated in the great abstract, drip paintings by Jackson Pollock.

Professor Henry Adams' book is written in an easy, comfortable style that suits the topic. His deeply informed opinions and expert analysis will allow readers to secure a greater appreciation for the creative and thoughtful artwork of both Benton and Pollock, while Jackson Pollock's difficult behavior is explained and his genius reaffirmed.

(I do question why Professor Adams chose a coarse title for chapter 25.)

This is a book that will dispell myths about artist Jackson Pollack never revealed. It is a rare account of Jackson's upbringing, his early influences including his brother, acclaimed artist Thomas Hart Benton and Benton's wife for whom he had an attraction for. One of the highlights in this book is the account of Benton and Pollack in Paris; a pivotal juncture in each of their developments. You won't be able to put this book down-a great read!

This book is the best book I've ever read on Jackson Pollock and the only book I've read on Thomas Benton. I've read many books on Jackson Pollock and they all always have about the same things to say, giving only little information into Jackson's relationship with Thomas Benton. This book goes in-depth into their relationship and the relationship between Jackson and Benton's wife, Rita.
I also read some things about Lee Krasner that I had never read before, in regards to her personality, her motives for her relationship to Jackson, and the way their relationship functioned.
This book also takes an in-depth look at Benton's life and his relationship with the art world.
This book is very well-rounded, well-thought out and insightful! I would highly recommend this book for anyone interested in art, in Jackson Pollock and/or in Thomas Benton!

Henry Adams is a most knowledgable and delightful biographer. I thought I knew a great deal about Thomas Benton and just a little about Jackson Pollock. In this engrossing book, Henry Adams succeeded in not only detailing the lives and works of both artists, but introduced me to the many other fascinating people whose lives were interspliced with theirs. No novelist could possibly create as many extraordinary characters and events as Mr. Adams manages to chronicle in this definitive work. I can't thank him enough for this insightful and delightful look into the lives of "Tom and Jack."

It is great book with a blockbuster discovery - Jackson Pollock hid his name in the painting 'Mural'.
*NOTE: The most expensive painting of all-time (#5), ALSO has his name hidden in it! Rotate the piece 90 degrees left and you can see "Jackson" in huge yellow/white letters!