Manual Arts High School

In February 1929, at the age of sixteen years old, Harold Lehman left his home in New York City to join his father in Hollywood, CA. He began attending Manual Arts High School in South Los Angeles because of its excellent art department. It was there that Lehman met fellow students Philip Guston (then Philip Goldstein), and Jackson Pollock. They all became close friends, sharing the same interest in art, politics, and other youthful ideals.

During these early years, Lehman's main interest was in sculpture. Just prior to coming to Los Angeles he had already had experience with clay and plaster-casting in a large professional sculpture studio in New York City. As Lehman recalls, "I took with me a full set of modeling and plaster tools - which I put to good use in Manual Arts High School."

Lehman thrived at Manual Arts, which at the time was considered a "first-rate" Los Angeles high school. He was inspired by the head of the Art Department, Frederick J. Schwankovsky, who became his mentor and father figure. As Lehman recalled in an interview with Stephen Polcari, for Archives of American Art, "He was known as Schwany and he and I hit it off immediately." Lehman thrived in the open atmosphere, as well as exposure to literature, art classes, and new ideas. Schwany introduced Hinduism to his students having them read the Bhagavad-Gita, as well as the Light on the Path, the first book of Krishnamurti. Lehman created what he described as a "life-sized volute" of his teacher. In return, Schwankovsky who was also a well-known water colorist did a portrait of Lehman in watercolor.

Lehman thrived at Manual Arts, which at the time was considered a "first-rate" Los Angeles high school. He was inspired by the head of the Art Department, Frederick J. Schwankovsky, who became his mentor and father figure. As Lehman recalled in an interview with Stephen Polcari, for Archives of American Art, "He was known as Schwany and he and I hit it off immediately." Lehman thrived in the open atmosphere, as well as exposure to literature, art classes, and new ideas. Schwany introduced Hinduism to his students having them read the Bhagavad-Gita, as well as the Light on the Path, the first book of Krishnamurti. Lehman created what he described as a "life-sized volute" of his teacher. In return, Schwankovsky, a well-known watercolor, did a portrait of Lehman in watercolor.

To be closer to school, Lehman moved into his own apartment in South Los Angeles. Pollock steered Lehman to a studio apartment where his girlfriend lived. Lehman recalled, "Pollock was always coming around since his girlfriend was the landlady's sister".

In the national bestseller, Jackson Pollock, An American Saga (c1989), Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith wrote:

Lehman was everything that Pollock wasn't: self-confident, erudite, articulate, and extraordinarily talented...Of all the artists Jackson had encountered, and perhaps ever would encounter, Lehman came closest to that ideal of effortless accomplishment expressed in the term 'gifted'. There was no doubt: Harold Lehman was extravagantly gifted.