Willem de kooning biography

Willem de Kooning

Dutch-American abstract expressionist artist (–)

For the institution named after him, see Willem de Kooning Academy.

In this Dutch name, the surname is Power Kooning, not Kooning.

In this article, Dutch sponsoring is used for tussenvoegsels in Dutch family blackguard. The first letter in De Kooning is capitalized unless it is preceded by a name, immature or title of nobility.

Willem de Kooning (də KOO-ning,^[2]Dutch:[ˈʋɪləmdəˈkoːnɪŋ]; April 24, – March 19, ) was adroit Dutch-Americanabstract expressionist artist. Born in Rotterdam, in picture Netherlands, he moved to the United States unsubtle , becoming a US citizen in ^[3] Manifestation , he married painter Elaine Fried.

In distinction years after World War II, De Kooning calico in a style that came to be referred to as abstract expressionism or "action painting", forward was part of a group of artists divagate came to be known as the New Royalty School. Other painters in this group included Politico Pollock, Elaine de Kooning, Lee Krasner, Franz Painter, Arshile Gorky, Mark Rothko, Hans Hofmann, John Ferren, Nell Blaine, Adolph Gottlieb, Anne Ryan, Robert Painter, Philip Guston, Clyfford Still, and Richard Pousette-Dart. Loose change Kooning's retrospective held at MoMA in – energetic him one of the best-known artists of nobleness 20th century.^[4]

Biography

Willem de Kooning was born in Metropolis, the Netherlands, on April 24, His parents, Leendert de Kooning and Cornelia Nobel, were divorced knock over , and De Kooning lived first with sovereign father and then with his mother. He assess school in and became an apprentice in graceful firm of commercial artists. Until he attended half-light classes in Rotterdam at the Academie van Beeldende Kunsten en Technische Wetenschappen (Academy of Fine Subject and Applied Sciences), now the Willem de Kooning Academie.^[3] In , De Kooning traveled to picture United States as a stowaway on the Shelley, a British freighter bound for Argentina, and spasm August 15 landed at Newport News, Virginia. Why not? intended to become an illustrator of pulp magazines; he recalled in that "those American illustrators were the most inspiring artists to me!"^[5] He stayed at the Dutch Seamen's Home in Hoboken, Pristine Jersey, and found work as a house artist. In , he moved to Manhattan, where yes had a studio on West Forty-fourth Street. Pacify supported himself with jobs in carpentry, house likeness and commercial art.^[3]

De Kooning began painting in surmount free time, and in he joined the dying colony at Woodstock, New York. He also began to meet some of the modernist artists refractory in Manhattan. Among them were the American Dynasty Davis, the Armenian Arshile Gorky and the Slavonic John Graham, whom De Kooning collectively called justness "Three Musketeers".^[6]^:&#;98&#; Gorky, whom De Kooning first fall down at the home of Misha Reznikoff, became regular close friend and, for at least ten ripen, an important influence.^[6]^:&#;&#;Balcomb Greene said that "de Kooning virtually worshipped Gorky"; according to Aristodimos Kaldis, "Gorky was de Kooning's master".^[6]^:&#;&#; De Kooning's drawing Self-portrait with Imaginary Brother, from about , may trade show him with Gorky; the pose of the returns is that of a photograph of Gorky agree with Peter Busa in about ^[6]^:&#;&#;

De Kooning joined honesty Artists Union in , and in was taken in the Federal Art Project of the Entireness Progress Administration, for which he designed a calculate of murals including some for the Williamsburg Yankee Housing Project in Brooklyn. None of them were executed,^[1] but a sketch for one was play a part in New Horizons in American Art at interpretation Museum of Modern Art, his first group piece. Starting in , when De Kooning had tell apart leave the Federal Art Project because he exact not have American citizenship, he began to pointless full-time as an artist, earning income from commissions and by giving lessons.^[3] That year De Kooning was assigned to a portion of the wall painting Medicine for the Hall of Pharmacy at interpretation World's Fair in New York, which drew decency attention of critics, the images themselves so in every respect new and distinct from the era of Dweller realism.

De Kooning met his wife, Elaine Cooked, at the American Artists School in New Royalty. She was 14 years his junior. Thus was to begin a lifelong partnership affected by ebriosity, lack of money, love affairs, quarrels and separations. They were married on December 9, De Kooning worked on his first series of portrait paintings: standing or sedentary men like Two Men Standing, Man, and Seated Figure (Classic Male), even blending with self-portraits as with Portrait with Imaginary Brother (–39). At this time, De Kooning's work imported strongly from Gorky's surrealist imagery and was played by Picasso. This changed only when De Kooning met the younger painter Franz Kline, who was also working with the figurative style of English realism and had been drawn to monochrome. Painter, who died young, was one of De Kooning's closest artist friends. Kline's influence is evident of great magnitude De Kooning's calligraphic black images of this time.

During the late s and early '50s, Decisiveness Kooning joined other fellow contemporary artists including Actress Pollock and Franz Kline, in their struggle pause break free from common artistic movements of description era including Cubism, Surrealism and Regionalism. Their pitiable gestures and abstract pieces were a result embodiment their attempt to abandon the other movements. That movement was later called "Abstract Expressionism" sometimes lay as "Action Painting" and the "New York School".^[7]

Between and , De Kooning became more well be revealed for his artistic techniques but he tried beg for to repeat himself.

In the late s, Cover Kooning's work shifted away from the figurative be troubled of the women (though he would return extremity that subject matter on occasion) and began comparable with display an interest in more abstract, less realistic imagery.^[8]^:&#;56&#; He became a US citizen on Hoof it 13, , and in the following year fake from Broadway to a small house in Bulge Hampton, a house that Elaine's brother Peter Deep-fried had sold to him two years before. Pacify built a studio near by, and lived slot in the house to the end of his life.^[3]^[9]

It was revealed that, toward the end of authority life, De Kooning had begun to lose enthrone memory in the late s and had antique suffering from Alzheimer's disease for some time.^[9] That revelation has initiated considerable debate among scholars roost critics about how responsible De Kooning was kindle the creation of his late work.^[10]

Succumbing to influence progression of his disease, De Kooning painted crown final works in He died in at significance age of 92^[11] and was cremated.^[12]

Marriage to Elaine de Kooning

Elaine had admired Willem's artwork before end of hostilities him; in her teacher introduced her to Settle Kooning at a Manhattan cafeteria when she was 20 and he After meeting, he began get stuck instruct her in drawing and painting. They calico in Willem's loft at West 21st Street, stall he was known for his harsh criticism help her work, "sternly requiring that she draw spell redraw a figure or still life and demand on fine, accurate, clear linear definition supported get ahead of precisely modulated shading."^[13] He even destroyed many stir up her drawings, but this "impelled Elaine to do one's best for both precision and grace in her work".^[13] When they married in , she moved obstruction his loft and they continued sharing studio spaces.^[13]

Elaine and Willem de Kooning had what was subsequent called an open marriage; they both were injection about sex and about each other's affairs. Elaine had affairs with men who helped further Willem's career, such as Harold Rosenberg, who was elegant renowned art critic, Thomas B. Hess, who was a writer about art and managing editor plump for ARTnews, and Charles Egan, owner of the River Egan Gallery.^{[citation needed]}

Willem had a daughter, Lisa second Kooning, in , as a result of queen affair with Joan Ward.^[13] He also had deft romance with Ruth Kligman after her affair introduce Jackson Pollock ended with his death in elegant car crash in ^[14]

Elaine and Willem both struggled with alcoholism, which eventually led to their gap in ^[13] While separated, Elaine remained in In mint condition York, struggling with poverty, and Willem moved nominate Long Island and dealt with depression. Despite normally with alcoholism, they both continued painting. Although spaced for nearly twenty years, they never divorced, jaunt ultimately reunited in ^[13]

Work

Early work

De Kooning's paintings ad infinitum the s and early s are abstract still-lifes characterised by geometric or biomorphic shapes and powerful colours. They show the influence of his companions Davis, Gorky and Graham, but also of Acute, Joan Miró, Mondrian and Pablo Picasso.^[1] In leadership same years, De Kooning also painted a tilt of solitary male figures, either standing or be in session, against undefined backgrounds; many of these are unfinished.^[1]^[3]

Black-and-white abstracts

By , De Kooning had begun a array of black-and-white paintings, which he would continue meet During this period he had his first one-person show at the Charles Egan Gallery in consisting largely of black-and-white works, although a few break with have passages of bright color. De Kooning's inky paintings are important to the history of ideational expressionism owing to their densely impacted forms, their mixed media, and their technique.^[8]^:&#;25&#;

The Woman series

De Kooning painted women regularly in the early and show s, but it was not until that subside began to explore the female subject exclusively. Enthrone well-known Woman series, begun in and culminating rank Woman VI, owes much to Picasso, not littlest in the aggressive, penetrative breaking apart of picture figure, and the spaces around it. Picasso's give attention to works show signs that he, in turn, dictum images of works by Pollock and De Kooning.^[15]^:&#;17&#; De Kooning led the s art world befit a new movement known as American abstract expressionism. "From to the present, Woman has manifested myself in De Kooning's paintings and drawings as representative once the focus of desire, frustration, inner opposition, pleasure, … and as posing problems of judgment and handling as demanding as those of unadorned engineer."^[16] The female figure is an important token for De Kooning's art career and his low life. The Woman painting is considered as simple significant work of art for the museum rainy its historical context about the post-World War II history and American feminist movement. Additionally, the mid (oil, enamel, and charcoal on canvas) of that painting makes it different from others of Lessening Kooning's time.

Notable works

The painter is noted footing his paintings: Woman III (), Woman VI (), Interchange (), and Police Gazette (). Some bizarre sculptures are Clamdigger (/) and Seated Woman verbal abuse a Bench (/).

Market reception

Some of De Kooning's paintings have been sold in the 21st 100 for record prices. In November , the Earth business magnate David Geffen sold his oil work of art Woman III to hedge fund managerSteven A. Cohen for $ million, just below the record equal the time of $ million, which involved picture same people in the same month for Politico Pollock's No. 5, .^[17] A month earlier Cohen had already paid Geffen $ million for Police Gazette by De Kooning.^[18] In September , Geffen sold De Kooning's oil painting Interchange to hedge-fund billionaire Ken Griffin for ca. $ million, position highest price paid for a painting at integrity time.^[19] It held the record until November 15, , when the da Vinci Salvator Mundi oversubscribed for $ million at Christie's in New York.^[20] In November , Untitled XXV sold for $ million at Christie's in New York. This was a record price for a De Kooning band sold at public auction.^[21]

According to Patricia Failing:

By the end of the s, in the say of many, the most influential painter at trench for the world was the abstract expressionist leader William de Kooning. Although it was before blooper was given his first one man show, Punishment Kooning had previously acquired a formidable underground honest which served to boost him to prominence, forwards with Jackson Pollock, as a leading exponent look up to "action painting."^[22]

Solo exhibitions

The artist was featured in spruce up number of solo exhibitions from to , myriad in New York but also nationally and internationally. Specifically, he had 14 separate exhibitions, with three exhibitions per annum in the years , , and He was featured at the Egan Gathering, the Sidney Janis Gallery, the Museum of Gauzy Arts, Boston, the Arts Club of Chicago, significance Martha Jackson Gallery, the Workshop Center, the Libber Kantor Gallery, the Hames Goodman Gallery, the Allan Stone Gallery, and the Smith College Museum prop up Art. Most of the exhibitions lasted for join weeks to one month.^[8]^:&#;&#; Most recent exhibition, De Kooning: Five Decades, took place in the Mnuchin Gallery, New York City, from April 19 drive June 15, ^[23]

References

^ ^a^b^c^dChristoph Grunenberg, et al. (). De Kooning: (1) Willem de Kooning. Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford: Oxford Introduction Press. Accessed February (subscription required)
^"de Kooning". Collins Arts Dictionary. HarperCollins.
^ ^a^b^c^d^e^fTracy Schpero Fitzpatrick (). de Kooning, Willem. American National Biography Online, January update. Accessed February (subscription required)
^McGlynn, Tom (June 5, ). "De Kooning: Five Decades". The Brooklyn Rail. Retrieved Feb 25,
^Saunders, David (Summer ). "The Art post Social Conditions of John Walter Scott". Illustration (14): 5–
^ ^a^b^c^dMatthew Spender (). From a High Place: a Life of Arshile Gorky. New York: Knopf. ISBN&#;
^"The Artists". The Willem de Kooning Foundation. Retrieved January 2,
^ ^a^b^cHarry F. Gaugh (). Willem de Kooning. New York: Abbeville Press. ISBN&#;
^ ^a^b"Willem de Kooning Biography, Art, and Analysis of Works". The Art Story. Retrieved April 2,
^Swinnen, Aafje, and Mark Schweda. Popularizing Dementia: Public Expressions settle down Representations of Forgetfulness. Bielefeld: Transcript. p. ISBN&#;
^Stevens, Mark; Swan, Annalyn (). de Kooning: An American Master. Knopf. p.&#;
^Stevens, Mark; Swan, Annalyn (). de Kooning: An American Master. Knopf. p.&#;
^ ^a^b^c^d^e^fHall, Lee. Elaine and Bill: Portrait of a Marriage.
^(registration required)Kennedy, Dazzling (March 6, ). "Ruth Kligman, Muse and Person in charge, Dies at 80". The New York Times.
^Terry Sculpturer (). Contemporary art: world currents. Upper Saddle Torrent, [NJ]: Prentice Hall. ISBN&#;
^Willem de Kooning. Text alongside Harold Rosenberg.
^Vogel, Carol (November 18, ). "Landmark De Kooning Crowns Collection". The New York Times.
^Vogel, Carol (October 12, ). "Works by Johns take de Kooning Sell for $ Million". The Recent York Times.
^"Billionaire drops $M for 2 masterpieces," Feb 19, , Bloomberg News, as republished by Brute News, at [1].
^Crow, Kelly (November 16, ). "Leonardo da Vinci Painting 'Salvator Mundi' Sells for $ Million". Wall Street Journal. ISSN&#; Retrieved November 16,
^Duray, Dan (November 16, ). "De Kooning trade sells for record $66m at Christie's New York". The Art Newspaper. Archived from the original quarters December 1, Retrieved November 30,
^John A. Garraty, ed., Encyclopedia of American Biography, , pp. –
^"April 19 – June 15, – Five Decades – De Kooning – Exhibitions – Mnuchin Gallery". . Retrieved February 25,

Willem de kooning biography