ABSTRACT
In April 1937 the Magazine of Art published John Graham's article "Primitive Art and Picasso." Pollock read it and wrote to the author, who sought him out, for that was his habit. Graham insisted on knowing what New York painters were doing, especially the younger ones. He wanted to be an arthistorical Gabriel, announcing the future of painting in the New World. Born Ivan Dombrowsky, Graham was descended from minor Polish nobility. During the Russian Revolution, he fought as a cavalry officer on the czarist side. Imprisoned, he escaped and joined White Russian forces in the Crimea. Anyway, these are among the stories he told after the White Russian cause failed and he fled westward, settling eventually in New York. There he studied at the Art Students League and became enough of a painter—and enough of a Marxist—to claim a place in the avant-garde.
