Where to See Willem de Kooning

Willem de Kooning's artworks have been featured in many exhibitions. A major retrospective organised by the Museum of Modern Art, New York, travelled to the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (September-November 1968), the Tate Gallery, London (December 1968-January 1969), the Art Institute of Chicago (May-July 1969), and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (July-September 1969). Later displays of his drawings and sculptures were seen at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (March-April 1974), then the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (June-July 1974), and the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo (December 1974-January 1975). His lithographs from 1970-1972 were circulated by Fourcade, Droll Inc., New York, across the United States and Canada (1974-1977). Venues included the University of Alabama, the Amarillo Art Center, the Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego, and the San Jose Museum of Art. More recent paintings were exhibited at M. Knoedler et Cie., Paris, in June 1968.

Willem de Kooning (1904-1997) is best known for his paintings; however, he also produced a substantial body of prints, particularly in the later decades of his career. Although he experimented with lithography in the 1960s, his printmaking activities increased significantly in the 1970s. De Kooning's prints often echo themes and motifs present in his paintings, such as abstract figures and gestural marks. He explored various printmaking techniques, including lithography, etching, and screenprinting. These prints are not mere reproductions of his paintings; instead, they represent a distinct area of his artistic output, with their own character. A key aspect of de Kooning’s printmaking was his collaborative approach. He worked closely with printmakers, such as Irwin Hollander, to achieve particular effects. This collaboration allowed him to translate his painterly style into the print medium, resulting in works that retain the spontaneity and energy associated with his paintings. His prints provide another avenue for understanding de Kooning's artistic vision and his exploration of form and abstraction.

Willem de Kooning's art remains important because of his influence on both Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art. Although he is acknowledged as a founder of Action Painting, his impact extends beyond the style of his art. His broad gestures and the speed of his painting execution are echoed by many abstract painters. His effect on Pop Art touched on both attitudes and specific imagery, especially the works of Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg. Both Johns and Rauschenberg employed a form of brushstroke that recalled the techniques of Abstract Expressionism. De Kooning exploited the tension between figure and ground, but he dematerialised the object to reconcile its three-dimensional form with the flat picture plane. De Kooning engaged with modern technology and commerce, even naming paintings after super-highways. He elevated emblems of contemporary life into high art. He was attracted to the image of the American female found on billboards, using stereotypes like the movie queen to serve as symbols of cultural phenomena.

Willem de Kooning was versatile with materials and techniques. In his early career, he was influenced by Surrealist automatism and Cubism. He painted directly, manipulating pigment with vigorous gestures. He thinned oil paint with water, adding kerosene, safflower oil, or even mayonnaise as a binding agent. He applied pigment with house-painter's brushes, overlaying it with paper, cardboard, or vellum to create texture. Spatulas and knives were used for smaller details. De Kooning made his first sculptures in Rome in 1969, using clay that was later cast in bronze. Henry Moore encouraged him to enlarge his sculptures. He experimented with polyester resin coated with a bronze-like patina, but eventually favoured working at a large scale. In the 1970s, sculpture became more important to de Kooning than painting, but he returned to painting in 1975.

Willem de Kooning influenced many artists, both Abstract Expressionists and Pop artists. He is considered a major influence on subsequent generations of abstract painters, primarily through his style rather than the subjects he depicted. His sweeping gestures, the speed of his painting, and the texture of his works are echoed by his followers. De Kooning's influence extended to Pop Art, particularly the work of Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, who employed brushstrokes reminiscent of Abstract Expressionism. Johns' painterly style and iconic treatment of subjects are often compared to de Kooning. De Kooning's method, like that of his New York School colleagues, originated in improvisation and accident. During the late 1930s and 1940s, there was an intense artistic interchange between de Kooning and Arshile Gorky. Gorky's free-flowing organic shapes reverberate in de Kooning's figures and anthropomorphic abstract forms.

Willem de Kooning was influenced by a number of artists and movements. Cubism and Surrealism, especially the work of Picasso, were important to his development. The randomness of automatism, a Surrealist technique, was also significant, as was their use of collage. Arshile Gorky, with whom de Kooning shared a studio, reinforced his link to Surrealism. Gorky's free-flowing organic shapes appear in de Kooning's figures and anthropomorphic abstract forms. De Kooning also benefited from Neo-Plasticism; Mondrian's grid structure, based on Cubism, reinforced de Kooning's own inclination toward Cubism. De Kooning met John Graham and Stuart Davis after he moved to New York in 1927. Like Pollock and Motherwell, de Kooning was a leader in the development of Abstract Expressionism, an American movement strongly influenced by European Surrealist notions of automatism and free expression. Some have observed the influence of Michelangelo and Rubens on his work.

Willem de Kooning is associated with the New York School of Abstract Expressionism. Although he worked in both abstract and figurative modes, he is best known for his paintings of women. He began his first series of *Women* in 1938, which became a recurrent theme in his work. *Woman, I*, created between 1950 and 1952, is one of de Kooning's most famous works. The image integrates an aggressive, distorted representation of a woman. Some have interpreted this figure as a decadent woman, robbed of her inner self by society and reduced to exaggerated physical features. De Kooning continued to explore the subject of women for more than ten years, creating caricatures and travesties of stylised media clichés of femininity. De Kooning's first solo exhibition took place at the Egan Gallery in New York in 1948. It included black-and-white abstractions he began in 1946, which helped establish his reputation. After Jackson Pollock's death, de Kooning assumed the position of Abstract Expressionism's leading painter.

Willem de Kooning is associated with Abstract Expressionism, an American movement that gained momentum in the 1940s. Born in Rotterdam in 1904, de Kooning immigrated to the United States in 1926. His initial abstract works, dating from 1928, displayed recurring motifs, such as egg shapes and vertical stripes. He also incorporated everyday items, arranging them with a sense of gravity. During the 1930s and 1940s, he produced both abstract and figurative pieces. His black and white pictures from the 1940s explored multiple-meaning forms. De Kooning, along with artists like Jackson Pollock and Robert Motherwell, was a leading figure in the development of Abstract Expressionism. The movement was influenced by European Surrealist ideas around automatism and free expression. De Kooning's style is characterised by energetic pigment application. His paintings often evoke emotions through abstract terms, such as urban areas or sensations outside the city. Some critics described the output of the New York School as action painting, because of the physical interaction between the painter and the canvas.