Death of an Artist

Episode 5: We Are Without Fear

“I wrestle with: Was it courage, or was it cowardice?” This question animates a memorial service for Michael and Petra, held several months after their death. Alice and

Episode 4: Bird on a Wire

“It brought up all the things I've never done. All the risks I haven't taken. It was always about trying to be free, you know?” According to Michael Mathers’s first tru

Episode 3: The Train Has Left the Station

“I have never regretted my decision, only the amount of unhappiness it caused you. Still, unforgivingness is the product of those who feel it.”  When Petra and Michael

Episode 2: It’s Lonely Without You, Friends

“I would've screamed. I would've shouted. I would've cried out. I would've protested. I would've given a million reasons to not leave this world.” Michael and Petra lef

Episode 1: Dear Honeys

DISCLAIMER:  This podcast is about suicide. Listener discretion is advised "When Michael and I got together some 40 plus years ago, we’d always planned on checking out

Introducing Death of an Artist Season 3: Petra Mathers and Her Michael

When Alice Gregory and Leon Neyfakh started building a library for their infant daughter, they stumbled across a name in an obituary that Alice recognized from her own ch

Bonus: The Women on the Scene with Audrey Flack

Artist, musician and writer Audrey Flack shares her firsthand accounts of the downtown New York City art scene in the mid-twentieth-century and a song she and her band, T

Bonus: Krasner's Way with Eleanor Nairne

Katy speaks with Eleanor Nairne, who first introduced her to Lee Kranser’s work. Back in 2019, Nairne exhibited a groundbreaking retrospective of Lee Krasner’s work while

Episode 6: A Phoenix From the Ashes

1956. New York City. After Pollock’s death, Krasner balances her new role as executor of his estate and her ambitions to continue making art. See omnystudio.com/listener

Episode 5: The Kiss of Death

1955. Upper West Side. Jackson Pollock seeks help from a psychotherapist practicing controversial methods. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode 4: Jackson Pollock Inc.

1945. East Hampton. Lee Krasner and Jackson Pollock start a new life in a farmhouse 100 miles east of New York City. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode 3: The Collector

1942. Midtown. Peggy Guggenheim arrives, opens a gallery and gives hungry artists hope. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode 2: Inner Rhythm

1936. Brooklyn. A young Lee Krasner leaves home and starts to create a kind of art America has never seen before. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode 1: Crash

1956. Paris. An artist named Lee Krasner learns that her husband is dead.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Death of an Artist Season 2: Krasner and Pollock

On May 17th, Death of an Artist returns with an all new season hosted by Katy Hessel about the woman who made the modern art world: Lee Krasner.  See omnystudio.com/list

An Epilogue: Live from A.I.R. Gallery

A live audience and curator Patricia Margarita Hernandez join Helen at the A.I.R. gallery in this epilogue to the series. The conversation moves from generational shifts

The Numbers

In the wake of the #metoo and Black Lives Matter movements, art museums began publicly touting their dedication to diversity. In this episode, we hear from two arts journ

Episode 6: The Reckoning

Today, Carl Andre lives in the same apartment where Ana fell to her death. Helen investigates and grapples with what his not guilty verdict means and chips away at the si

Episode 5: The Silencing

Carl Andre is acquitted. Decades later, the art world remains divided about his innocence. In order to protect Carl, the art world maintained a strict separation between

Episode 4: The Genius Problem

Carl stands trial for the murder of Ana Mendieta. His defense ruthlessly attacks Ana, using her artwork against her, and rests heavily on his prestige in the art world. H