Clyfford Still, Cause of Death, Autopsy Report

Clyfford Still, Cause of Death, Autopsy Report

Clyfford Still was an American painter, and one of the leading figures in the first generation of Abstract Expressionists, who developed a new, powerful approach to painting in the years immediately following World War II.

Age

Still was born on November 30, 1904. He was 75 years old when he died on June 23, 1980

Education

In 1925 he visited New York, briefly studying at the Art Students League. He attended Spokane University from 1926 to 1927 and returned in 1931 with a fellowship, graduating in 1933.

That fall, he became a teaching fellow, then a faculty member at Washington State College (now Washington State University), where he obtained his Master of Fine Arts degree in 1935 and taught until 1941.

Career

Still has been credited with laying the groundwork for the movement, as his shift from representational to abstract painting occurred between 1938 and 1942, earlier than his colleagues like Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko, who continued to paint in figurative-surrealist styles well into the 1940s.

Cause of Death

No cause of death has been revealed.

Personal Life

Still married Lillian August Battan circa 1930. They had two daughters, born in 1939 and 1942. The couple separated in the late 1940s and divorced in 1954.

In 1957, Still married Patricia Alice Garske, who had been one of his students at Washington State and was sixteen years his junior.

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