Joseph Meert, an Abstract Expressionist painter and friend of Jackson Pollock, is remembered not only for his art, but also for likely saving Pollock’s life. On a subzero winter night in 1943 or 1944, Pollock visited Meert at his apartment and later passed out intoxicated in a snowdrift. He may have frozen to death had Meert not found him and brought him to safety.

In the 1920s, Meert lived in Kansas City, Kansas, at 1014 Tenny Street. He taught at the Kansas City Art Institute from 1935 to 1941. Despite an extensive exhibition record, Meert never achieved significant financial success.

Following the death of his wife in 1980, Meert’s physical and mental health began to decline. Misdiagnosed with schizophrenia, he became a ward of a state nursing home. In 1985, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation awarded a grant that enabled his transfer to a better care facility in Cheshire, Connecticut, where he received art therapy treatment, which he benefited from until his death in 1990.

Source: Falk, Peter Hastings. Who Was Who in American Art.