Pollock Died 50 Years Ago Today

New York, NY —

Fifty years ago today, the painter Jackson Pollock died when he crashed his car on a road near Easthampton, Long Island, killing himself and a young woman passenger, Edith Metzger.

Pollock had worked as a WPA artist here in the city and palled around with fellow artists Willem de Kooning and Franz Kline at bars like the Cedar Lounge. In 1945, he and his wife, painter Lee Krassner moved to the Island where developed his style of abstract drip painting in his barn studio.

An exhibit of his smaller canvasses is currently on view at the Pollock-Krassner house in Springs, Long Island. The Guggenheim Museum also has a show titled, "No Limits, Just Edges: Jackson Pollock Paintings on Paper," on view through September.

Pollock was 44 when he died.