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Speaker 1: Pushkin. It's a cool summer evening in Paris, August nineteen

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Speaker 1: fifty six, an American artist called Lee Krasna is at

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Speaker 1: a friend's place.

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Speaker 2: It was a magnificent apartment, was a huge skylight, easels everywhere.

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Speaker 2: She was completely at home, amid the smell of turpentine

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Speaker 2: and lindseed oil.

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Speaker 1: Paris is Lee's mecca, the home of modern art. Now

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Speaker 1: in her late forties, She's finally here.

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Speaker 2: Looking at what was happening in Paris and who was

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Speaker 2: doing what, who was painting, who was showing what? Galleries

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Speaker 2: were showing what.

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Speaker 1: But this isn't just a work trip.

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Speaker 2: Lee was there to recharge her batteries because of a

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Speaker 2: very tricky relationship with a husband she had left behind

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Speaker 2: in the States.

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Speaker 1: A turbulent relationship to say the least, his ego, alcoholism,

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Speaker 1: and now an affair. But a month in Paris has

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Speaker 1: helped take her mind off life back home. That evening,

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Speaker 1: Lie's relaxed, drifting into sleep.

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Speaker 2: And as she settled in on her friend's couch for

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Speaker 2: the night, about three in the morning, the phone rang.

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Speaker 2: Her host answered the phone and didn't say anything, but

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Speaker 2: she could tell by the stricken look on his face

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Speaker 2: that something terrible had happened. Without knowing any of the

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Speaker 2: words on the other end of the phone, Lee knew

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Speaker 2: exactly what had happened, and she shouted out, Jackson's dead.

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Speaker 1: Lee's husband is Jackson Pollock.

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Speaker 2: Her host saw that agony in her face, the absolute pain,

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Speaker 2: and rushed over to her and held her in his

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Speaker 2: arms for what he described as an endless half hour,

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Speaker 2: during which she writhed and moaned and was in utter agony.

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Speaker 2: He was actually terrified for her life because their apartment

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Speaker 2: had a balcony, and he was afraid she might do

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Speaker 2: something drastic. You know, that she might try to throw

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Speaker 2: herself off.

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Speaker 1: Later that same day, Lee would get on a plane

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Speaker 1: to New York, arrange his funeral, and mourn her husband.

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Speaker 1: But the story of Lion Jackson doesn't end there. After

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Speaker 1: spending weeks in a daze, unable to sleep, she would

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Speaker 1: embark on something extraordinary. What she'd do next would change history,

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Speaker 1: turning her dead husband into the most famous American painter

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Speaker 1: of all time and changing the way we all think

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Speaker 1: about art. I'm Katie Hessel, art historian and writer, and

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Speaker 1: this is Death of an Artist. Season two, Krasner and Pollock,

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Speaker 1: Episode one crash. Okay, so Audrey, please, can you introduce yourself?

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Speaker 1: Who you are? What do you do?

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Speaker 3: Well? I don't want to do that. You should do that.

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Speaker 1: Okay, let's leave that.

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Speaker 3: You know you should say. Here's Artery Flat and she's

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Speaker 3: blah blah blah, and she's an ancient person.

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Speaker 1: Audrey Flat is ninety two years old and is as

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Speaker 1: New York as it comes. She's been a painter for

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Speaker 1: seven decades now, and back in the nineteen fifties she

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Speaker 1: was right at the center of the downtown art scene,

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Speaker 1: then made up of only a handful of people.

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Speaker 3: I had a studio on Eighth Street and Third Avenue.

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Speaker 3: My studio was in a condemned building. The floors were

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Speaker 3: rotted and the stairway was hanging down and it wasn't safe.

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Speaker 3: So of course that's a perfect place for artists.

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Speaker 1: A few blocks up was a dive bar called the Cedar.

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Speaker 3: The Cedar was, you know, the place that everybody went, smoky, crowded.

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Speaker 3: I was very busy and jam packed and exciting, and

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Speaker 3: the talk there were really arguments about who was a

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Speaker 3: greater artist, a Tintrredo or Caravaggia.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, not my usual Saturday night chat.

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Speaker 3: There was a bar with stools. They were drinking little

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Speaker 3: shots of Scotch with a beer chaser. Jackson liked to

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Speaker 3: sit towards the back. His face was bloated, his skin,

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Speaker 3: you know, had little capillaries had broken in his nose,

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Speaker 3: and you don't ever notice when somebody drinks too.

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Speaker 1: Much, Audrey. You'd see Jackson Pollock there most nights. He

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Speaker 1: was a big guy, early forties, scruffy, often wearing a

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Speaker 1: baggy coat, hi at his beer belly inside the cedar.

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Speaker 1: Among fellow artists, he was a big deal, the one

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Speaker 1: they all looked up to. And that goes for Audrey Flack,

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Speaker 1: then a young artist.

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Speaker 3: One night I went to the cedar, Jackson wandered over.

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Speaker 3: He stumbled over because he was clearly plastered, and sort

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Speaker 3: of fell into the other chair next to me. We

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Speaker 3: were talking and I wanted to ask him about his art,

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Speaker 3: and then he started coming close to me. He brushed

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Speaker 3: his face against mine, and he had a three day stubble.

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Speaker 3: It was scratchy, and obviously he didn't smell too good

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Speaker 3: because I don't think he had washed. And then he burped,

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Speaker 3: he belched, and then he was embarrassed and he tried

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Speaker 3: to pinch my behind and then he leans over and

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Speaker 3: he says, let's buck. I said, no, I'm not going

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Speaker 3: to do that. Jackson. Just calm down. And that was

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Speaker 3: the night that I I would never go back to.

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Speaker 1: The Cedar, and she didn't, but plenty of others did

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Speaker 1: because the reality was that if you wanted to be

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Speaker 1: in the art scene, if you really wanted to make it,

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Speaker 1: you had to show your face. At the Cedar.

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Speaker 3: They were the oh what are the girls who follow

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Speaker 3: the rock stars?

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Speaker 4: Groupees?

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Speaker 3: Groupies? They were groupies. They thought if they slept with big,

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Speaker 3: hard shows, it would rub off and they would have

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Speaker 3: some importance. That is how it was.

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Speaker 1: And it was there at the Cedar that Jackson met

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Speaker 1: a friend of Audrey's who just moved to the city,

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Speaker 1: a twenty six year old artist called Ruth Kleigman.

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Speaker 3: Ruth was unbelievably sexy. It just wreaked, thick black hair,

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Speaker 3: rimmed sunglasses and red lipster. She looks like Elizabeth Taylor.

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Speaker 3: She was really knocked out. She really had a good

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Speaker 3: eye and an ability to talk that mesmerized you, which

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Speaker 3: she must have done to Jackson. She really got him.

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Speaker 1: By this point, Jackson had been married to Lee for

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Speaker 1: a decade. Their marriage well, it had its ups and downs,

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Speaker 1: and the downs largely corresponded to Jackson's binges. And when

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Speaker 1: Jackson met Ruth at the Cedar, he was in one

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Speaker 1: of his spirals.

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Speaker 2: Jackson had carried on his affair in secret, well secret

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Speaker 2: to Lee.

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Speaker 1: That's Mary Gabriel, a journalist who wrote the book Ninth

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Speaker 1: Street Women, all about the women of the American modern

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Speaker 1: art scene. You'll be hearing a lot from her throughout

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Speaker 1: the show. Anyway, back to Jackson's.

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Speaker 2: Affair, everyone else in their community was well aware of

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Speaker 2: it because he wore Ruth Kligman and his arm like

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Speaker 2: a prize.

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Speaker 1: A few months after getting together, Ruth started spending more

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Speaker 1: and more time at Jackson's home in Long Island, a

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Speaker 1: little farmhouse right by the beach. Lee was away that

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Speaker 1: summer in Paris, and Ruth made the most of it.

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Speaker 1: One hot day, she invited her friend Edith Metzger to

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Speaker 1: take the two hour train ride out to Jackson's place

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Speaker 1: with her. Ruth couldn't wait to take a cool dip

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Speaker 1: in the ocean and show off her new artist's boyfriend.

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Speaker 2: They were met at the train station by a Sadden,

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Speaker 2: middle aged drunk who barely spoke, who was angry that

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Speaker 2: Ruth had brought Edith with her.

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Speaker 1: It was ten am and already he reeked of booze.

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Speaker 1: Not knowing what else to do, Ruth and her friend

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Speaker 1: Edith piled into Jackson's mint green eighty eight Oldsmobile convertible,

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Speaker 1: but instead of going to the house or to the beach,

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Speaker 1: Jackson headed straight to a bar.

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Speaker 2: Carlock's usual drink of choice was beer, but that day

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Speaker 2: he turned to gin and got immediately hammered.

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Speaker 1: Jackson drank until lunchtime, then finally drove them home. The

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Speaker 1: two women changed into their bathing suits, ready to go

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Speaker 1: to the beach, but when they came into the kitchen,

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Speaker 1: they found Jackson raiding the cupboards for more booze. Ruth

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Speaker 1: was desperate to salvage the situation to show her friend

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Speaker 1: at least some kind of Saturday night. She started arguing

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Speaker 1: with Jackson, but he didn't want to go to the beach.

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Speaker 1: All he wanted to do was drink. Ruth wore him down,

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Speaker 1: and finally he announced that they were going to a party.

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Speaker 2: It was going to be a cantered at a mansion

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Speaker 2: on Long.

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Speaker 1: Island, the hottest ticket in town.

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Speaker 2: That was exactly what Ruth and Edith needed to hear

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Speaker 2: to resurrect their fantasy and their plans. So they changed

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Speaker 2: into party dresses and Jackson cleaned himself up.

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Speaker 1: They got into Jackson's convertible. It was getting dark out

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Speaker 1: no street lights.

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Speaker 4: From the moment we regot in the car into.

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Speaker 1: A simistic that's Ruth speaking in a rare interview.

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Speaker 4: We're on our way, kept stopping the car crying. Edith

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Speaker 4: became provocatives in the sense that she didn't understand, and

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Speaker 4: she got very scared.

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Speaker 1: Jackson was paying so little attention at this point that

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Speaker 1: the car simply rolled to a stop.

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Speaker 2: A policeman pulled up alongside him and asked it everything

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Speaker 2: was okay. He had his wits about him enough to

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Speaker 2: reassure the policeman that yes, he said, They had just

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Speaker 2: stopped to talk.

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Speaker 1: The policeman drove on, and Jackson turned the car around.

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Speaker 1: He headed towards home, stopped at another bar, but changed

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Speaker 1: his mind about going in. Edith couldn't take it anymore.

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Speaker 1: She got out of the car and refused to get

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Speaker 1: back in. Jackson was furious. They were just two minutes

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Speaker 1: from his house. Ruth managed to coax her friend to

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Speaker 1: get back in the car. Jackson put his key in

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Speaker 1: the ignition.

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Speaker 4: The acting just wildly started to speed and he put

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Speaker 4: his foot on the gas. He did started to scream.

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Speaker 3: And he laughed.

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Speaker 4: He speeded down Thirdla's room. That's when the car swore.

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Speaker 1: The car hurtled off the road into a ditch and

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Speaker 1: smashed into some trees. Ruth blacked out. She was woken

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Speaker 1: up a few minutes later.

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Speaker 4: The young girl came up to me and she's patting me.

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Speaker 4: And there was a man and I was holding his

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Speaker 4: hand and they covered me. And I made this girl.

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Speaker 4: I said, go over there to where the car is

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Speaker 4: and I'll be watching you, and come back and tell

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Speaker 4: me if he's all right. And she did. And she

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Speaker 4: came back and I said, is he alive? She said yes.

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Speaker 4: I said, swear by God, she said I can't. So

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Speaker 4: I knew.

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Speaker 1: Both Jackson and Edith were dead. In only a few hours.

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Speaker 1: The art world would find out. That's coming up after

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Speaker 1: the break, The news that Jackson Pollock was dead spread

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Speaker 1: quickly through the art world. Within a few hours, it

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Speaker 1: seemed like everybody knew.

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Speaker 3: Oh my god. The whole world stopped, well, the whole

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Speaker 3: art world stopped.

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Speaker 2: He was the center of their world, and now he

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Speaker 2: was gone.

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Speaker 3: Everybody called each other. It was electrifying, like a spark

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Speaker 3: went out. Everybody was shocked and sad and depressed.

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Speaker 1: Later that day, while Lee Krasner, Jackson's wife, was on

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Speaker 1: a plane back to New York, their friends gathered at

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Speaker 1: their house in Long Island waiting for her arrival.

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Speaker 2: They weren't sure how much she knew about the circumstances

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Speaker 2: of Jackson's death. That Ruth was in the carr that

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Speaker 2: a young woman had died with him.

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Speaker 1: Ruth's clothes were still everywhere, as were Jackson's bottles, broken glasses,

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Speaker 1: cigarette butts.

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Speaker 2: No one was sure what to expect from Lee.

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Speaker 1: Late afternoon on Monday, the thirteenth of August nineteen fifty six,

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Speaker 1: barely forty eight hours after the death of her husband,

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Speaker 1: Lee opened the door.

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Speaker 2: She walked in the house, strong and calm and determined

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Speaker 2: and focused. They were shocked because it was a house

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Speaker 2: of mourning she had entered. Their friends were grieving. Their

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Speaker 2: friends were crying, and yet Lee wasn't. She was there,

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Speaker 2: dry eyed, seemingly to console them. It was Lee who

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Speaker 2: put her arms around people. It was Lee who was

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Speaker 2: the strength in that community at that moment.

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Speaker 1: As their friends were crying, not knowing what to do,

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Speaker 1: Lee took charge. She was ready to face what was coming.

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Speaker 2: To be the person she always was, which was the

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Speaker 2: person who took care of a situation analytically. If there

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Speaker 2: was any private morning to be done, if there was

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Speaker 2: any pain or grief to be shown, she would do

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Speaker 2: that later.

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Speaker 1: Because first Lee was going to have to organize her

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Speaker 1: husband's funeral, and there was a problem.

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Speaker 2: They only had two hundred dollars in the bank.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, only two hundred dollars.

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Speaker 2: And with that she had to find a way to

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Speaker 2: bury her husband, to arrange a funeral in a chapel,

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Speaker 2: to buy burial platz.

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Speaker 1: Lee moved quickly. She borrowed money from friends, called Jackson's family,

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Speaker 1: made arrangements with the vicar, and just four days after

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Speaker 1: the crash, the small local chapel was hosting an odd

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Speaker 1: mix of people, artists, friends, Jackson's family, and locals.

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Speaker 2: The funeral at the Springs Chapel was samber and silent.

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Speaker 2: The artists were silent. The minister didn't mention Jackson's name.

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Speaker 1: Not the sendoff you might have imagined for Jackson Pollock.

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Speaker 2: This was where the locals from Springs were buried, the

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Speaker 2: fishermen and the farmers.

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Speaker 1: After the burial, the mourners headed back to the house.

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Speaker 2: All of that emotion that had been pent up through

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Speaker 2: the morning at the chapelain at the cemetery exploded in

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Speaker 2: what everyone agreed was the most raucous party that had

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Speaker 2: ever been thrown at Fireplace Road. Someone joked at one

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Speaker 2: point that Jackson must have been spiking the punch because

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Speaker 2: they all got drunk so quickly, and they danced and

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Speaker 2: the release was palpable.

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Speaker 1: If this story had finished here, Jackson might have been forgotten.

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Speaker 1: That would be it. But as you know, that's not

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Speaker 1: what happened.

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Speaker 3: Here.

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Speaker 1: It is at fifty two million dollars. His work would

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Speaker 1: go on to sell for eye watering sums sold fifty

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Speaker 1: two million, he would become the most famous American artist

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Speaker 1: of all time.

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Speaker 2: Jackson Pollock is a name recognized by people well beyond

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Speaker 2: the art world.

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Speaker 3: He's famous for those drip paintings that seem to him.

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Speaker 1: His paintings would influence filmmakers, musicians, fashion, you name it.

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Speaker 1: They would change the course of twentieth century culture.

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Speaker 3: When you enter a Pollock painting, you're entering out of space.

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Speaker 3: He was like a living god.

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Speaker 1: Many of us have been told a certain story about

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Speaker 1: Jackson Pollock as the man who changed art forever, who

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Speaker 1: changed America, who changed how we see. That's probably what

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Speaker 1: you know about him, And that's what's so intriguing to me, because,

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Speaker 1: as I see it, the story we've been told about

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Speaker 1: Jackson Pollock is a myth. The real story is so

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Speaker 1: much better. I'm Katie Hessel, and I've spent the past

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Speaker 1: decade uncovering the stories of great women artists, but I've

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Speaker 1: never come across one more game changing than this one.

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Speaker 1: When Jackson Pollock died in nineteen fifty six, his global

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Speaker 1: fame and fortune hadn't peaked yet, nowhere near. And none

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Speaker 1: of it would ever have happened if not for someone else,

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Speaker 1: someone hiding in plain sight, the woman who just put

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Speaker 1: her husband in the ground and had less than two

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Speaker 1: hundred dollars to her name, Lee Krasner.

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Speaker 2: Nobody knew Polack. He was just a figure in the village,

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Speaker 2: a drunk.

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Speaker 3: You're kidding all these Jackson Pollock paintings, When are you

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Speaker 3: going to deal with them paper, You're living room.

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Speaker 2: This shy, good looking young man appeared at this art

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Speaker 2: opening and the arm of a supernova. If it hadn't

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Speaker 2: been for Lee Krasner Jackson Pollock would not have been

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Speaker 2: the power that it was.

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Speaker 1: That's all coming up on Death of an Artist Season

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Speaker 1: two Krasner and Pollock. Death of an Artist Krasner and

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Speaker 1: Pollock is produced by Pushkin Industries and Samasdat Audio. Clem

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Speaker 1: Hitchcock is our producer. Story editing by Dasha litz Azzina,

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Speaker 1: Sophie Crane and Karen Schakerji from Pushkin. The executive producer

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Speaker 1: is Jacob Smith from Samazdat Audio. The executive producers are

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Speaker 1: Dasha litz Azzina and Joe Sykes. Sound design by Peregrin Andrews.

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Speaker 1: Original scoring and our theme were composed by Martin Orstwick.

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Speaker 1: Fact checking by Arthur Gompertz. Special thanks to Jacob Weissberg.

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Speaker 1: I'm Katie Hassel