Death of an Artist

“Dear Lottie and Herbie, by the time you read this, I will be dead . . . That's why I'm writing this letter. I've had a long and happy life doing what I loved best . . . Now it's time to make room for someone else on this earth.”  The letters Petra and Michael sent out echo the words of a letter in a children’s book Petra wrote 10 years earlier: the final installment in her...

“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 Leon want to understand it as well: Was Michael and Petra’s suicide a move toward something, or away from something else? To figure it out, they reach out to Michael and Petra’s families, to find out what ex...

“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 true love, he was always a romantic. Was the death orchestrated with Petra the ending of a love story he’d been trying to craft all along? Get early, ad-free access to the entire season of Death of an Artist by...

“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 died, they left everyone in their lives behind. But it wasn’t the first time: When Petra first fell in love with Michael, she left her son Tillmann to be with him. In an interview with Alice and Leon, Tillmann...

“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 left their house and the logistics of their afterlife to their friend Patty—unbeknownst to Patty’s sister Virginia, who considered herself one of Michael and Petra’s best friends. Patty and Virginia have d...

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 together." In February of 2024, a letter arrived at the pharmacy in Astoria, Oregon. It was from local residents Petra and Michael Mathers, and they wanted to let the pharmacists know that they had died—by suicide. Petra...

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 childhood: celebrated children’s book author and illustrator Petra Mathers. Petra had died by suicide alongside her husband, Michael Mathers. Both were in their late 70s, seemingly happy and healthy. The details of Petra and M...

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, The History of Art, wrote about Jackson Pollock.  Flack passed away in June. For more about her life, see “ Audrey Flack, Creator of Vibrant Photorealist Art, Dies at 93 .”  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 she was senior curator at the Barbican Art Gallery in London. Today she is the Keith L. and Catherine Sacks Curator and Head of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In this episode, a dive into Krasner’s...

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 for privacy information.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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/listener for privacy information.

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 in the artworld to Helen’s own Robin Hood fantasy – and ends with some pushback from an audience member who knew Ana. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 journalists about whether there are actually more artworks by women and people of color on the walls. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 silence the art world has used to protect both Andre and itself. If you’d like to keep up with the most recent news from this and other Pushkin podcasts be sure to subscribe to our email list . See omnystudio.com/listener for privac...

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 the art and the artist and used silence to preserve the status quo. But a few remain vocal. To hear the rest of Season 1 ad-free, sign up for Pushkin+ on the Death of an Artist show page in Apple Podcasts, or at pushkin.fm/plus. I...

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. Helen reveals her personal connection to Carl Andre and his work, and how it changed her career. To hear the rest of Season 1 ad-free, sign up for Pushkin+ on the Death of an Artist show page in Apple Podcasts, or at pushkin.fm/plu...

Ana’s art engaged with her identity as a Cuban female artist. She worked hard to be recognized in a world dominated by white men. After her death, Ana’s friends and family demand an investigation. Many of the most powerful members of the art world dismiss them as a “feminist cabal.” To hear the rest of Season 1 ad-free, sign up for Pushkin+ on the Death of an Artist show page in Apple Podcasts, or...

Following Ana’s death, police take Carl in for questioning. He has scratches on his face. His story is inconsistent, yet he maintains his innocence. In this episode, we rewind and take a look back at Carl’s history and his relationship with Ana and try to understand what led to that night. To hear the rest of Season 1 ad-free, sign up for Pushkin+ on the Death of an Artist show page in Apple Podca...

In 1980s Manhattan, a young Cuban artist named Ana Mendieta made a name for herself as a rising star in the art world. Her turbulent marriage to the older and well-established sculptor Carl Andre raised eyebrows. One September night, Carl called 911 in a panic. His wife, he said, “went out the window.”  To hear the rest of Season 1 ad-free, sign up for Pushkin+ on the Death of an Artist show page...

Coming Sept 23: For more than 35 years, accusations of murder shrouded one of the art world’s most storied couples: Was the famous sculptor Carl Andre involved in the death of his up-and-coming artist wife Ana Mendieta? Host Helen Molesworth revisits Mendieta’s death and the trial that followed, and interrogates both the silence and the protest that have accompanied this story ever since. To hear...