Jackson Pollock

Between 1910 and 1950, America underwent profound and irreversible changes. We fought in two world wars and went through the worst depression in our history. We experienced an immense growth in industry. We saw the coming of the automobile, movies, radio and television. And we witnessed a huge migration from rural to urban America in response to industrialization, the Depression and World War II.Not surprisingly, art in this country underwent similar upheaval. In 1910, America was an outpost of the art world; its center was Paris, where Matisse and Picasso caught the eye of forward-looking collectors such as Gertrude Stein and Baltimore's Cone sisters.

It's not that Ralph McGuire expects to make a comeback as an artist, a big splash or anything like that.All he wants is to get a grant from an unusual New York foundation set up to help established artists who never made a lot of money.But before he can get the grant, Mr. McGuire needs access to hundreds of his own oil paintings and drawings that are in the vaults of the Baltimore Museum of Art.But those precincts which were so receptive to him 46 years ago -- when he had a show in a gallery all to himself -- appear tightly closed to him today.

MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. -- Jackson Pollock wasn't in a good mood, and he wasn't about to see "no more damn people." It's not easy being 124 years old, going on 125. Especially if you can't prove it.After finally agreeing to indulge the public, the man who may be the world's oldest living person said definitively, "I was born Christmas Day, 1866."The certainty here is important. Mr. Pollock, a resident of Central State Hospital's nursing home in Milledgeville, can't document the date of his birth.

Washington.---EVIDENCE that Washington is, strictly speaking, deranged -- literally disconnected from reality -- includes Richard Darman's statement on Sunday television that President Bush did not do what the nation saw him do. Mr. Darman, the budget director, said the president, in his television speech concerning the budget deal, ''wasn't actually asking the public to support this.''This is what Mr. Bush said: ''Tell your congressman and senators you support this. . . . Urge them to stand with the president.