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PARTISAN REVIEW
would not have been part o f th e experi ence of Ameri can painters.
T ha t's the important thing. I mean , there were a few painters who
knew Mondri an , but Mondrian when he di ed was an unknown
person.
In
the thirti es I went to th e first exhibiti o n in th e U.S. of
Paul Kl ee. Th e mos t expensive pa inting in the show was $600.
Nobody knew Paul Kl ee. Mos t of th e a rti sts had never hea rd of Pau l
Kl ee. Even Picasso was ha rdl y known in Ameri ca. T he Museum of
Modern Art d id a tremendo us educa ti ona l jo b. Bu t it went o ff th e
track when th e Ameri cans began to produce advanced a rt. Alfred
Barr didn 't know wha t was go in g on . I suspect th a t he couldn ' t stand
the Abstract Expressioni sts. T he fact of the ma tter is. th e Museum
of Modern Art, like th e Metropolitan , fa il ed to bu y Po ll ock or de
Kooning, and had to pay huge sums for them la ter on.
T umin:
Was it possible to say a t tha t time, do you think , " Damn it,
thi s man is an important painter. Buy him."
R osenberg:
Some people said tha t.
T umin:
Would it have been poss ibl e fo r you? Wo uld tha t be the kind
o f judgment you would have been willing to ma ke, and could have
made a t tha t time?
R osenberg:
I never added, "Buy him ."
T umin:
Leave " buy" as ide. T hi s ma n is an impo rtant arti st.
R osenberg:
Yes.
T umin:
You could tell thirty yea rs ago tha t Jackson Poll ock was an
important arti st?
R osenberg:
Sure, that wasn ' t difficult. Of course, the po int was also
tha t we were all fri ends.
It
didn ' t ta ke any grea t geniu s to say th at thi s
fri end o f mine is a grea t arti st. As a ma tter o f fac t, I can document
thi s. At the end o f th e wa r, I wrote a piece abo ut art for the one–
vo lume guide th a t came out of the Ameri can Gui de Seri es, o f whi ch I
had been the art editor in the thirti es.
In
the a rticl e I mentioned a list
of arti sts o f the prev io us genera ti on. The editor of the book told me
the publi sher wanted me to mention contemporari es . I replied tha t
you couldn 't mention contempo ra ries because to menti on fi ve
arti sts, meant leaving out fifty. Menti oning ten meant leaving out a
hundred . Th e editor insisted tha t the publisher wanted names. I sa id,
"All ri ght, I'm go ing to put in the names of my fri ends." He sa id,
"Go ri ght ahead. I don't care if you put in your grandmo ther. " So I
put in m y fri ends.
In
tha t boo k, published in th e forti es, you will find
tha t the grea t arti sts a re Gorky, de Koonin g, Po ll ock and so on .
Tumin:
One las t set of ques ti on s, and then we' ll fo ld up. It's com-
