***February 2007*** |
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Willem de Kooning
April 24, 1904 - March 19, 1997
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| Willem de Kooning was born on April 24, 1904,
in Rotterdam, Holland. Both of his parents were involved in
the sale of alcohol, his father as a distributor, and his
mother as the proprietor of a bar. De Kooning’s parents
separated when he was five, and after only a brief period
in which he lived with his father, his mother insisted that
he come and live with her. Her demands were followed. Willem,
like most true artists, showed artistic leanings as a child
and at the age of 12 he left school to apprentice with Jan
and Jaap Giding, the proprietors of a large commercial art
firm. When de Kooning had completed his training in traditional
arts and crafts, the Gidings assisted him in enrolling in
the Academie Voor Beeldende Kunsten en Technische Wetenschapen,
where he attended evening classes for the next eight years
(from1916 to 1924). De Kooning graduated from the Academy
in 1924, having received certification as both an artist and
craftsperson.
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As a young art student, de Kooning became familiar with the work
of Picasso, Matisse, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Piet Mondrian. He also
admired a group of Dutch abstract artists known as DeStijl, who
included Mondrian among their peers. Feeling the need for adventure
and freedom De Kooning set sail in 1926 for the United States (he
did not become a citizen of the U.S. until 1961), in the hope of
becoming a commercial illustrator. Though his knowledge of the English
language was almost non-existent, he was able to find work as a
freelance commercial artist and housepainter. De Kooning first settled
in Hoboken, New Jersey, (an area with a sizable Dutch population)
and the following year, he moved to New York City, where he developed
friendships with artists including Edward Denby, Stuart Davis, and
Arshile Gorky. He shared a studio with Gorky, who, along with Pablo
Picasso, came to be a major influence on the painter’s early
work.
In 1935, de Kooning found full-time employment through the Works
Progress Administration’s Federal Art Project, and in 1939
was commissioned by the New York World’s Fair to create a
mural for the Hall of Pharmacy. In 1942, de Kooning met the painter
Jackson Pollock, with whom he formed the Club, an artists’
group that met regularly at 39 East 8th Street in New York. |
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De Kooning married fellow painter Elaine Marie
Fried in December of 1942. Over the years, he and his wife
often lived in separate homes for extended periods of time,
but as he grew older, Elaine spent more time at his house
in East Hampton, Long Island. Elaine de Kooning was a respected
Abstract Expressionist painter in her own right.
The 1940s were years of great success for de Kooning. His
first one-man show took place in 1948 at New York’s
Charles Egan Gallery and was a critical success. It featured
10 abstract paintings, the majority of which had been rendered
in black and white. Around this time, influential art critic
Clement Greenberg named de Kooning one of the most important
painters of the 20th century. In June 1950, he was among six
American artists (and, along with Jackson Pollock and Arshile
Gorky, one of three Abstract Expressionist painters) chosen
by the Museum of Modern Art’s Alfred H. Barr for exhibition
in the 25th Venice Biennale in Italy. The following April
marked his second one-man show; that year he also was among
the artists chosen by the Museum of Modern Art to represent
the United States at the 27th Biennale International in Venice,
Italy.
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Although his work appears spontaneous, de
Kooning often spent many months on a single piece, repeatedly
painting over completed sections. Friend and New Yorker critic
Harold Rosenberg first used the term “Action painting”
to refer to de Kooning’s violent slashes of colour and
the shifting foreground and background typical of his abstract
work. De Kooning continued painting and exhibiting throughout
the 1950’s, leading the Abstract Expressionist movement
and gaining worldwide recognition for his work.
The painter moved to East Hampton, Long Island in 1961, which
was a favoured locale among painters of the period. There,
he began work on a glass-walled studio that was not fully
completed until 1969. In the mid-1960’s he returned
to the subject of women, this time placing the female figure
in abstract landscapes, (De Kooning would revisit this subject
matter throughout his career). By the 1980s, a decade in which
he completed over 300 pieces, his work took on a simpler form,
emphasizing abstract orange, blue, and red lines that leapt
from a canvas painted white. In these later pieces, de Kooning
turned away from the influence of Picasso and began to look
more toward the colourful silhouettes of Matisse’s later
works.
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Although a hard drinker for much of his life, de Kooning abstained
from alcohol in his later years. As he aged, the artist also suffered
from the short-term memory loss associated with Alzheimer’s
disease. Of de Kooning’s generation of painters, he was one
of the few to survive to old age: Arshile Gorky and Mark Rothko
committed suicide in 1948 and 1970, respectively, Jackson Pollock
died in a car crash in 1956, and Franz Kline succumbed to a heart
attack in 1962. De Kooning would not pass away until 1997, after
a long battle with Alzheimer’s. |
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The painter has been the subject of several retrospectives, including
a 1953 show at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and one at the Museum
of Modern Art in New York in 1997.
Willem de Kooning’s work continues to inspire artists and
patrons alike. He and the other members of the New York School of
painting helped to establish New York City as a centre for artistic
activity. He died on March 19, 1997 on Long Island.
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