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THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

M14 | Friday, March 6, 2020

MANSION
HOUSE CALL | LARRY POONS

A Crush That Led
To a BrushJASON MANDELLA (PORTRAIT); MELVIN C. POONS (HISTORICAL); © LARRY POONS/VAGA/ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS), NY

The painter fell for a girl in school in a Francis Ford Coppola-directed playT

he first time I painted
on canvas board, I waslovesick. I had a crush
on a girl in high schooland had just finishedreading Irving Stone’s Van Gogh biographical novel, “Lust for Life.”
I took my easel to a nearby parkand painted trees. As I worked thepaint with a small brush, it helped
get my feelings out.
I was born in Tokyo in 1937. My
grandfather, a New Yorker, had
started an export company there.
My father, Melvin, and his brothertook over the business.
About a year later, we left in ahurry. Japan’s war with China anda concentration camp loomed overeveryone. Back in the U.S., we settled in Far Rockaway, Queens.
We lived near the beach. I remember the brightness and thesand. I also remember my motherarriving home from the hospital andstepping out of the family Packardwith my baby brother, Ronnie.
My father commuted into Manhattan to the family business. Inthe late 1940s, my parents moved

to a Moorish house on the North
Shore of Long Island in an old section of Great Neck.
My mother, Esme, was tall andattractive. But for some reason wedidn’t get along. We had an odd relationship that I’ve never been able
to figure out. She rarely talked tome. Neither did my father.
As a result, I was a solitary kidand turned to music. At some point
in grade school, my father boughtme a Stella guitar. I taught myself toplay with an instruction book. I also
listened to Tex Ritter’s records andfollowed along.
In high school,
I heard Hank Williams sing on theradio. It was likesmelling a flower
for the first time. I
had no control
over how I felt.
Around thattime, I also discovered poetry.
John Faybrick, an
English teacher,laid Carl Sandburg
on the class. He
had us pick a favorite poem out of
Sandburg’s “The People, Yes” andread it to the class.
When I came to the end of thepoem I chose, the class wasthunderstruck, just as I hadfelt. I liked that. I had
communicated something and everybody
was stunned.
I had ahandful ofschool friends, including Francis Ford
Coppola, who was in thegrade behind me. He wasknown then as Frank. He directed school plays, such as “Finian’s Rainbow.” That’s where I fellin love with the girl. She was adancer in the cast.
Painting, music and poetry all
spoke to me, especially music. In
my senior year, I applied to theNew England Conservatory of Music in Boston. But by my second
year, the idea of becoming a formal
musician was fading. I had been
painting daily. It was as enjoyableas pedaling a bike.
In 1956, I was accepted at theGreenwich Village Art Show. Back in
Boston, I enrolled at the School ofthe Museum of Fine Arts. But I realized I couldn’t draw.
I left school and moved to New
York in 1957. Painters Don McAree,
Howard Smythe and I became
friends, and we opened the E-pit’ome Coffee House on Bleecker
Street in 1958.
One day in 1959, Howard insisted
I go uptown to French & Co.’s gallery to see a show by Barnett Newman. I responded immediately tothe color. I was knocked out. Barney was the first real artist I evermet. He treated me like an equal

Larry Poons atYares Art gallery,
Manhattan, inNovember, far left,
and at age 3, left,in Far Rockaway,
Queens. Below,‘Rock and Roll,’circa 1958.

and I felt part of the art world.
Today, my wife, Paula, and I divide our time between a loft in theNoHo section of Manhattan and an
old farmhouse in upstate New
York. The farmhouse is morethan 100 years old. I paintin the 400-square-footstudio space in ourbarn.
The girl I hada crush on inhigh school never
knew she inspired my first painting. In the early ’60s, I
wanted to give her a geometricwork I painted in 1958 called “Rockand Roll.” She wouldn’t accept it.
—As told to Marc Myers
Larry Poons, 82, is an abstract
painter best known for his “dot”
and “throw” paintings. “LarryPoons” (Abbeville), a book-lengthmonograph of his work from the1950s to the present, will be published in September.

POONS ON PAINTING
Wish you could draw? Not atall. I realize now that drawing
is not what painting is about.
What is it about? Split-second
struggles with yourself andcolor. That’s the nature ofpaint.
What is painting? Survival.
You’re never sure about what
you’ve done. That’s ultimately
its sum total.
So, there’s comfort in insecurity? There has to be if you’rea painter.

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