Artist buried in a 1940 Packard?!!!

Posted by Garrett Meadows On 2015/1/31 13:34:54

I just finished watching a modern art documentary featuring a segment on an artist named Edward Keinholz. When Keinholz died in 1994, he was buried sitting behind the wheel of beautifully restored 1940 Packard coupe! Based on Keinholz's artistic philosophy and his works, I guess it was only fitting he be buried in such a way.

For those of you who think I'm jerking your chains, here's a blurb from an article detailing Keinholz's burial:

Edward Kienholz died suddenly in Idaho on June 10, 1994, from a heart attack after hiking in the mountains near their home. He was a chronic smoker who had been struggling with diabetes, which progressively impaired use of his extremities.[3][18] He was buried in an authentic Kienholz installation; Robert Hughes wrote, "[H]is corpulent, embalmed body was wedged into the front seat of a brown 1940 Packard coupe. There was a dollar and a deck of cards in his pocket, a bottle of 1931 Chianti beside him and the ashes of his dog Smash in the back. He was set for the afterlife. To the whine of bagpipes, the Packard, steered by his widow Nancy Reddin Kienholz, rolled like a funeral barge into the big hole."[20]