Michael Salcman, “The Painting Commissions Its Audience

The Painting Commissions Its Audience

Michael Salcman

—after Pollock’s Full Fathom Five

When the artist was young, Hans Hofmann stood over him like Alexander blocking the sun from Diogenes and said you must paint from nature and the artist said No.

When he was a little older his wife said I am an artist like you and the artist said No.

When he was almost dead his girlfriend said don’t drink and drive so fast and the artist said No.

So he wasn’t around to catch the buzz when they hung him on the museum wall with swirls and drips like alpha-particles in a Wilson cloud chamber and someone stopped to stare.

This naturally drew a larger crowd of viewers who searched for and found cigarette butts and nails, a key and other stuff dropped into the paint. Even his handprints

and hippy colors like Monet on acid or pot. A treasure hunt with importunate demands for attention which the painting refused.

Some viewers started speaking in tongues, they were the critics, and the audience grew. But the painting ignored them, reflexively as if thinking of his favorite word: No.