Pollock-Krasner May Spread Wings

You may already know where you can buy a monochrome T-shirt that in the sunshine transforms into a multicolored depiction of Jackson Pollock's studio floor. But did you know that the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center in Springs is not only venturing into a little trendy merchandizing, but also considering an expansion?

The House and Study Center has applied to the East Hampton Town Planning Board for site plan approval and a special permit to convert the first floor of a house across Fireplace Road to an art reference library.

"We are at the early stages of developing plans for expansion, but it was Lee Krasner's wish to have an important research facility here so we want to honor that wish," commented Helen Harrison, the center's director, on Monday.

Humble Hub

In 1945, when Springs was an isolated rural community, Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner - pioneers in the migration of artists to the South Fork, just as they were pioneers in the field of modern American art - bought a small shingle house by Accabonac Harbor.

Pollock, the pivotal figure of Abstract Expressionism, crashed his car into a tree in 1956 and died not a mile from the house. His widow continued to live there and paint in the studio barn until her death in 1984, and in her will expressed the hope that the property could be preserved for use as an art study center.

In answer to her wishes, a foundation set up by the State University at Stony Brook took over the house and studio in 1987, and eventually the humble building joined a select list of buildings, most on the grander scale of Monticello, as a national historic landmark. The facility gives tours, mounts art exhibits, usually with some connection to the Abstract Expressionist Movement, and sponsors a series of Round Table lectures during the summer.

Growing Library

Another clause of Krasner's will - bequeathing her library of art books and catalogues to the study center - may have produced its most widely used resource.

Donations have fortified the collection. Most recently, the complete archive of the Jackson Pollock Catalogue Raisonne, published in 1978, and its 1995 supplement, were added. Composed of more than 20 running feet of documents, the archive was given by the catalogue's co-authors, Eugene V. Thaw and Francis V. O'Connor.

To Krasner's books were added many from the estates of Alfonso Ossorio, Hans Namuth, Elaine de Kooning, Arnold Hoffmann, and Sheridan Lord, artists who had known Pollock and his wife, as well as collections of art magazines from the East Hampton Library.

Less Costly

Other donations include photographs from The East Hampton Star and from the estate of Mr. Namuth, and audiotapes from Ann Gibson made while she was researching a book on lesser-known Abstract Expressionists and by Jeffrey Potter, author of a biography on Pollock, "To a Violent Grave."

All this material, now stored in a second-floor bedroom at the Pollock-Krasner Center, is outgrowing available space. It attracts scholars and students from all over the world and is continually expanding.

Rather than building an addition, the center is exploring a less costly alternative, in the shape of a house for sale immediately across the street. It may move the art library and research materials into the first floor of this house, the second floor of which is a legal apartment.

Educational Resource

"We're concerned about preservation, but we're also concerned about public education . . . a fundamental aspect" of the center's mission, Ms. Harrison told the Planning Board on Dec. 18.

For its part, the Planning Board has said it likes the idea, but that a number of problems would have to be addressed, such as parking and access for the handicapped, before it could approve the plan.

Also looking out for the center's interests is a Guardians Council established under the chairmanship of John A. Lack, an entertainment industry executive and a founder of MTV.

Council members include Mr. Thaw, president of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, which administers a program of direct grants to artists and is not affiliated with the study center, Ronald and Carole Lauder, Robert and Joyce Menschel, B.H. Friedman, Pollock's first biographer, and his wife, Abby, and Jeff Gordon and Path Soong, whose production company, Sooj Records, has released a compact disk of l950 interviews with Pollock and Krasner.

With a first-class collection of art books and catalogues, the library just might become a major resource for researchers, artists, and writers - a fine complement to Pollock's paint-drip-encrusted studio (the closest the center may come to owning a major Pollock masterpiece) and the array of Pollock mouse pads and jigsaw puzzles that also attract visitors.