Willem de Kooning was a Dutch-American abstract expressionist artist. Born in Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, he moved to the United States in 1926, becoming a U.S. citizen in 1962. In 1943, he married painter Elaine Fried.
Paintings by Willem de Kooning
Interchange (de Kooning) (1955)
Interchange, also known as Interchanged, is a 1955 abstract expressionist oil painting on canvas by Dutch-American painter Willem de Kooning (1904–1997). Like Jackson Pollock, de Kooning was one of the early artists of the abstract expressionism movement, the first American modern art movement. The painting measures 200.7 by 175.3 centimetres (79.0 by 69.0 in) and was completed in 1955. It marked the transition of the subjects of de Kooning's paintings from women to abstract urban landscapes. It reflects a transition in de Kooning's painting technique due to the influence of artist Franz Kline, who inspired de Kooning to paint with quickly made gestural marks as opposed to violent brush strokes. The painting features a fleshy pink mass at its center, representing a seated woman.
Originally sold by the artist in 1955 for $4,000, it was sold by the David Geffen Foundation to Kenneth C. Griffin for $300 million in September 2015, then ranking it second on the list of most expensive paintings.
Police Gazette (painting) (1955)
Police Gazette is a 1955 abstract painting by Willem de Kooning, which is currently in a private collection.
Police Gazette is a landscape painted on canvas using abstract elements, and colors such as yellow, green and red. It is a painting with simple geometric forms, creating a contrast between the formal elements that compose the artwork. It was this painting that promoted Willem de Kooning amongst the most important contemporary abstract painters.
Seated Woman on a Bench (1972)
Seated Woman on a Bench is a bronze sculpture by Willem de Kooning. Modeled in 1972, it was cast in 1976. It is at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, in Washington, D.C.
Woman III (1953)
Woman III is a 1953 painting by abstract expressionist painter Willem de Kooning. It is one of a series of six Women paintings done by de Kooning in the early 1950s, which were first exhibited at the Sidney Janis gallery in 1953. Woman III measures 68 by 48+1⁄2 inches (1.73 by 1.23 m) and was completed that same year.
Woman III is notable within the series for its more muted palette of grays and whites. The body is outlined in arcs of black; the chest and arms are more voluminous than flat, as in other Women paintings. The features of Woman III's mask-like face are rendered. The figure stands apart from the background.
Woman I (1950)
Woman I is a 1950 abstract expressionist painting by American artist Willem de Kooning. The work is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, in New York.
Willem de Kooning painted Woman I over two years, from 1950 to 1952. He executed numerous preliminary studies before beginning the painting, starting over several times.
Clamdigger (de Kooning) (1972)
Clamdigger is a bronze sculpture by Willem de Kooning. It may have been inspired by "the men who dug for clams along the beaches" near his home in East Hampton, New York. It has been described as one of his "extraordinarily tactile figurative sculptures" that "seemed pulled from the primordial ooze," and "as part man, part creature of the mud and the shallows."
The sculpture was modeled in clay in 1972, and cast in bronze in 1976. It was his "first large-scale bronze work."
Woman VI (1953)
Woman VI is a 1953 abstract work of art painted by Willem de Kooning and first displayed at the Sidney Janis Gallery in Manhattan. Since the 1955 Carnegie International Exhibition, Woman VI has been on view at the Carnegie Museum of Art as part of the Postwar Abstraction collection. The Woman paintings of the early 1950s are widely considered to be de Kooning’s most important works for their significance to postwar American cultural history and social events, such as the mid-century Feminist Movements. Many of the paintings are speculated to be abstracted portraits of Marilyn Monroe. Woman VI is notable within the series for its brighter palette of green and red paint employed in larger fields of color.
As decolonization spread throughout the globe, the Cold War powers offered competing models for economic and political modernization, as well as models for the art world. The reasons why abstract expressionism took place in the 1950s are still a matter of debate. However, the political limitation was one of the definite reasons. After World War II, the political climate did not tolerate the social pretests of these painters anymore. The McCarthy era after World War II was a time of artistic censorship in the United States, but, if the subject matter were totally abstract, then it would be seen as apolitical, and, therefore, safe. The wartime shifted the artists’ perspectives of the art world from representational, single-style painting to an abstract, combination of multiple styles painting. For example, Thomas B. Hess, the longtime executive editor of ARTnews, pointed out about de Kooning’s works that
Woman-Ochre (1955)
Woman-Ochre is a 1955 abstract expressionist oil painting by Dutch-American artist Willem de Kooning, part of his Woman series from that period. It was controversial in its day, like the other paintings in the series, for its explicit use of figures, which Jackson Pollock and other abstract expressionists considered a betrayal of the movement's ideal of pure, non-representational painting. Feminists also considered the works misogynistic, suggesting violent impulses toward the women depicted.
Several years after it was completed, a wealthy collector from the Eastern United States bought it and later donated it to the new University of Arizona Museum of Art (UAMA) in Tucson, where he frequently vacationed, with the stipulation that the museum could not ever sell or give it away, even as the value of other de Kooning paintings from that era rose to over US$100 million in the early 21st century; however the stipulation did not prevent the museum from loaning it to traveling exhibits, and it went with several, as far away as Eastern Europe.
Reclining Figure (1969)
sculpture Reclining Figure by Willem de Kooning in Rotterdam/The Netherlands
Seated Woman (1969)
Rotterdam Weena. Kunstwerk "Seated woman" van Willem de Kooning. Rotterdam/The Netherlands.
Standing Figure (1969)
sculpture Standing Figure by Willem de Kooning in Rotterdam/The Netherlands