De kooning biography
•
Summary of Willem de Kooning
One of the most prominent and celebrated of the Abstract Expressionist painters, Willem de Kooning's pictures typify the vigorous, gestural style of the movement. Perhaps more than any of his contemporaries, he developed a radically abstract style of painting that fused Cubism, Surrealism and Expressionism. While many of his colleagues moved from figuration to abstraction, de Kooning always painted figures, most notably women, and abstractions concurrently, making no distinction between the art historical categories. De Kooning's real subject, he insisted, was space and the figure-ground relation.
De Kooning fused abstraction, figuration, and landscapes in various ways throughout the many long decades of his career, and his unceasing journey to find new forms and subjects made his overall output more eclectic than most of his colleagues. His engagement with popular culture was also unique and informed a host of post-war artists from the Neo-Dadaism o
•
Elaine de Kooning
Photo by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, courtesy of the photographer, © Timothy-Greenfield-Sanders
Elaine de Kooning
to
Born Elaine Fried in New York City, the artist developed her interest in art through museum trips, art books, and drawing opportunities provided by her mother. While studying painting in New York, the artist met and later married Willem de Kooning, 16 years her elder and a first-generation Abstract Expressionist.
Considered bygd some the voice of sammanfattning Expressionism, Elaine de Kooning was an articulate defender of the movement. She wrote numerous insightful pieces about her fellow artists. As a critic for ARTnews, she reviewed the work of Arshile författare, Franz Kline, David Smith, Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, and Josef Albers, among others.
Within her own art, she retained her interest in figuration. In numerous series—“bullfights,” “basketball players,” and “Bacchus”—de Kooning brought the expressive gesture of Abstract Expressionism to b
•
Willem de Kooning
()
Who Was Willem dem Kooning?
Willem de Kooning stowed away to the United States in and settled in New York City. While working in the commercial realm, de Kooning also was developing his artistic style, exploring both figure painting and more abstract subjects through the s. By the s, those two main tendencies seemed to fuse perfectly, notably in Pink Angels. De Kooning became known for his depiction of women, and women would dominate his paintings for decades. Later in life, de Kooning explored landscapes and even sculpture, before Alzheimer's disease made it impossible to continue on. He died in at age
Early Life
Born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, in , Willem de Kooning embraced the artistic path at a ung age, dropping out of school when he was 12 to begin an apprenticeship in commercial design and decorating. During this period, de Kooning took night classes at the Rotterdam Academy of Fine Arts and Techniques, and in the midst of his education,