Along with Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning was a member of the New York School of Post-war Abstract Expressionism. Born in Rotterdam, in 1926 the young artist emigrated to the US, where he worked illegally in New York as a commercial artist, window dresser, sign painter and carpenter. There de Kooning met other artists, including John Graham, Stuart Davis and Arshile Gorky and worked for the Federal Art Project, for which he did murals between 1935 and 1939. From 1935 in fact, he was able to devote himself entirely to painting. He shared a studio with Gorky and his early pictures were influenced by Gorky's Surrealist style and by Picasso's painting. However, de Kooning was also inspired by the Gestural branch of the New York School as well as Jackson Pollock and Franz Kline. Contact with Pollock and Kline inspired him to do his first black-and-white abstract works in 1946. From 1950 he developed his first 'Women' pictures, which are notable for such vehemence of handling that they at first caused a scandal. He retained this type of figuration until the 1990s. At the same time he also worked on fairly abstract landscapes, mainly during the years between 1957 and 1961. Naturalized as an American citizen in 1962, in 1964 de Kooning received one of the greatest distinctions awarded in America, the 'Presidential Medal of Freedom'. At the latest from his participation in the 1954 Venice Biennale, de Kooning has been regarded as a leading exponent of Abstract Expressionism. These years of his career were filled with numerous shows of his work and retrospectives. His exceptional œuvre is suffused with the duality of traditional figuration and Gestural Abstract painting. |
