The Tragic Death of Jackson Pollock (on this day 11 August 1956)

Описание: After struggling with alcoholism for most of his life, the American abstract expressionist painter Jackson Pollock soured on his marriage with the painter Lee Krasner and the couple became estranged. Krasner had fled to Europe when she discovered Pollock's affair with the abstract painter Ruth Kligman. On August 11th, 1956 Pollock was alone and depressed and drunk. En route to a party from his remote farmhouse in East Hampton, he drove his Oldsmobile 88 convertible with two passengers onboard, Kligman and her friend Edith Metzger. Driving at high speed down the road they reached a slight turn when Pollock lost control. The car hit a tree, spun around, and flipped end over end. Kligman was thrown clear, unharmed; Metzger was crushed to death when the vehicle landed on top of her. Pollock was shot fifty feet from the car and died instantly when he hit a tree. Perhaps Krasner was subconsciously expecting bad news the whole time she was in Paris, for when the phone rang for her the next morning, she only looked at the phone and as it rang she said: "Jackson is dead".
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