UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title The Ring around The Rose Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7426863k Author Ferrell, Elizabeth Allison Publication Date 2012 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California The Ring around The Rose: Jay DeFeo and her Circle By Elizabeth Allison Ferrell A dissertation submitted for partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History of Art in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Emerita Anne M. Wagner, Chair Professor Emeritus Timothy Clark Professor Shannon Jackson Professor Darcy Grigsby Fall 2012 Copyright © Elizabeth Allison Ferrell 2012 All Rights Reserved Abstract The Ring around The Rose by Elizabeth Allison Ferrell Doctor of Philosophy in History of Art University of California, Berkeley Professor Emerita Anne M. Wagner, Chair From 1958 to 1966, the San Francisco artist Jay DeFeo (1929-89) worked on one artwork almost exclusively – a monumental oil-on-canvas painting titled The Rose. The painting’s protracted production isolated DeFeo from the mainstream art world and encouraged contemporaries to cast her as Romanticism’s lonely genius. However, during its creation, The Rose also served as an important matrix for collaboration among artists in DeFeo’s bohemian community. Her neighbors – such as Wallace Berman (1926-76) and Bruce Conner (1933-2008) – appropriated the painting in their works, blurring the boundaries of individual authorship and blending production and reception into a single process of exchange. I argue that these simultaneously creative and social interactions opened up the autonomous artwork, cloistered studio, and the concept of the individualistic artist championed in Cold-War America to negotiate more complex relationships between the individual and the collective. 1 To the memory of my best friend, Mila Noelle Rainof, M.D., whose compassion and courage will always inspire the best things I do i Table of Contents List of Figures………………………………………………………………………………….…iii Acknowledgements ……………………………………………………………………………....xi Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………………….1 Chapter 1…………………………………………………………………………………………24 “S.F. Paintings in N.Y. Exhibit”: The legibility of Jay DeFeo’s artistic practice in “Sixteen Americans” Chapter 2……………………………………………………………………………………..….82 “The Individual and his World”: Representing the Fillmore circle to the postwar public Chapter 3……………………………………………………………………………………..…145 Artist’s Model / Model Artist: Wallace Berman’s photographs of Jay DeFeo Chapter 4…………………………………………………………………………………..……202 Myth, Memory and Make-believe: Jay DeFeo’s creative process after and through The Rose Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………...261 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………………280 Appendix………………………………………………………………………………………290 Timeline of Jay DeFeo’s dealings with The Rose, 1965-74 ii List of Figures Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………10-23 Figure 1: 2322 Fillmore Street, Google Maps, 2011, digital photograph Figure 2: View from the hallway into the kitchen of 2322 Fillmore Street, c. 1955, photograph Figure 3: View of the communal stairwell of 2322 Fillmore Street, Jerry Burchard, 1959, gelatin silver print Figure 4: Wally Hedrick welding in the courtyard of 2322 Fillmore Street, Jerry Burchard, 1959, gelatin silver print Figure 5: Jay DeFeo washing dishes in 2322 Fillmore Street, December 1961, photograph Figure 6: Christmas card to Dorothy Miller, Wally Hedrick, 1959, mimeograph print, glitter, postage stamp and mark, 8 ½ x 11 inches Figure 7: The Rose, Jay DeFeo, 1958-1966, oil with wood and mica on canvas, 10 ¾ x 7 ⅔ x 1 feet Figure 8: Photograph of The Rose, c. 1960 Figure 9: Photograph of The Rose, c. 1963 Figure 10: DeFeo in her studio, c. 1961, photograph Figure 11: Jay DeFeo in the living room of 2322 Fillmore Street, c. 1956, photograph Figure 12: Jay DeFeo in her studio at 2322 Fillmore Street, Jerry Burchard, 1959, gelatin silver print Figure 13: Jay DeFeo’s friends carrying The Rose to its new frame, c. December 1959, photograph Figure 14: Detail of untitled correspondence for Wallace Berman, Jay DeFeo, 1965, mixed media, approx. 16 x 16 inches Chapter 1…………………………………………………………………………………...…58-81 Figure 1: Reproduction of The Rose in the “Sixteen Americans” catalog, 1959 Figure 2: Jay DeFeo and two unidentified men in the Dilexi Gallery, 1959, gelatin silver print, 7 x 5 inches iii Figure 3: Diagram of Jay DeFeo’s exhibition at the Dilexi Gallery, San Francisco, 1959 Figure 4: Works in Jay DeFeo’s exhibition at the Dilexi Gallery, San Francisco, 1959 Figure 5: Works in Jay DeFeo’s gallery at “Sixteen Americans,” The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1959-1960 Figure 6: Diagram of Jay DeFeo’s gallery in “Sixteen Americans,” The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1959-1960 Figure 7: Installation view of Jay DeFeo’s gallery in “Sixteen Americans” showing Origin (1956), Death Wish (1958), and Persephone (1957), Soichi Sunami, 1959, photograph, 7 ¼ x 9 ½ inches Figure 8: Installation view of Jay DeFeo’s gallery in “Sixteen Americans” showing Daphne (1958) and The Veronica (1957) with Louise Nevelson’s gallery visible in the background, Soichi Sunami, 1959, photograph, 7 ¼ x 9 ½ inches Figure 9: Installation view of Jim Jarvaise’s gallery in “Sixteen Americans,” Soichi Sunami, 1959, photograph, 7 ¼ x 9 ½ inches Figure 10: Installation view of Frank Stella’s gallery in “Sixteen Americans” with Jim Jarvaise’s works visible in the background, Rudy Bruckhardt, 1959, photograph, 7 ¼ x 9 ½ inches Figure 11: Daphne, Jay DeFeo, 1958, Charcoal, graphite and oil on paper mounted on canvas, 106 x 42 inches Figure 12: Origin, Jay DeFeo, 1956, oil on canvas, 92 x 79 ¾ inches Figure 13: Death Wish, Jay DeFeo, 1958, charcoal, graphite and oil on paper, 89 x 43 ¼ inches Figure 14: The Veronica, Jay DeFeo, 1957, oil on canvas, 132 x 42 ½ inches Figure 15: Persephone, Jay DeFeo, 1957, graphite, charcoal, and oil paint on paper mounted on canvas, 88 x 41 inches Figure 16: Apollo and Daphne, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, 1622-25, marble, 88 x 41 inches Figure 17: Onement I, Barnett Newman, 1948, oil on canvas, 27 ¼ x 16 ¼ inches Figure 18: View of Landscape with Figure (c. 1955), Death Wish (1958), and Daphne (1958) installed in the Dilexi Gallery, 1959, 35mm slide Figure 19: The Wise and Foolish Virgins, Jay DeFeo, 1958, oil, house paint, charcoal, and graphite on paper mounted on two canvases, 129 x 42 ½ inches each iv Figure 20: View of Applaud the Black Fact (1958), The Wise and Foolish Virgins (1958), and Bird of Paradise (c. 1957) installed in the Dilexi Gallery, 1959, gelatin silver print, 10 x 8 inches Figure 21: Applaud the Black Fact, Jay DeFeo, 1958, collage on paper mounted on painted canvas, 51 x 36 inches Figure 22: Installation view of Ellsworth Kelly’s gallery in “Sixteen Americans” with Jay DeFeo’s The Veronica (1957) visible in the background, Soichi Sunami, 1959, photograph, 7 ¼ x 9 ½ inches Figure 23: Card sent by Jay DeFeo to Dorothy Miller that includes a piece of The Rose, December 1960 Chapter 2………………………………………………………………………………….117-144 Figure 1: Photo-panel of Jeremy Anderson for “The Individual and his World,” Jerry Burchard, 1959, 24 x 20 inches Figure 2: Photo-panel of Joe Botherton for “The Individual and his World,” Jerry Burchard, 1959, 24 x 20 inches Figure 3: Photo-panel of Bruce Conner for “The Individual and his World,” Jerry Burchard, 1959, 24 x 20 inches Figure 4: Photo-panel of Jay DeFeo for “The Individual and his World,” Jerry Burchard, 1959, 24 x 20 inches Figure 5: Photo-panel of Helen Dunham for “The Individual and his World,” Jerry Burchard, 1959, 24 x 20 inches Figure 6: Photo-panel of Art Grant for “The Individual and his World,” Jerry Burchard, 1959, 24 x 20 inches Figure 7: Photo-panel of Wally Hedrick for “The Individual and his World,” Jerry Burchard, 1959, 24 x 20 inches Figure 8: Photo-panel of Seymour Locks for “The Individual and his World,” Jerry Burchard, 1959, 24 x 20 inches Figure 9: Photo-panel of David Simpson for “The Individual and his World,” Jerry Burchard, 1959, 24 x 20 inches Figure 10: “Art in the Bank,” San Francisco Chronicle, February 26, 1962 v Figure 11: Cover of House and Garden, January 1957 Figure 12: Two installation photographs of “17 Contemporary American Painters” in the United States Pavilion at the Brussels World’s Fair, 1958 Figure 13: Photograph of the “Soviet and U.S. Pavilions at Brussels Fair” reproduced in “All’s Fair,” Time, April 28, 1958, 29 Figure 14: Ad Reinhardt and family at home, Hans Namuth, 1958, photograph Figure 15: Delphine Seyrig, Robert Indiana, Duncan Youngerman, Ellsworth Kelly, Jack Youngerman, and Agnes Martin at Coenties Slip, Hans Namuth, 1958, photograph Figure 16: Ellsworth Kelly with Delphine Seyrig and Duncan Youngerman in Kelly’s Coenties Slip studio, Hans Namuth, 1958, photograph Figure 17: Contact sheet of Wally Hedrick and Joan Brown in the courtyard of 2322 Fillmore Street, Jerry Burchard, 1959, 8 x 11 inches Figure 18: Jay DeFeo and Wally Hedrick in their Fillmore Street apartment, Jerry Burchard, 1959, photograph Figures 19-20: Wally Hedrick painting at 2322 Fillmore Street with The Rose in the background, Jerry Burchard, 1959, photograph Figure 21: William Baziotes with neighborhood children in Harlem, New York City, Hans Namuth, 1958, photograph Figure 22: Two portraits of Jay DeFeo, Jerry Burchard, 1959, photographs Figure 23: Richard Diebenkorn with