Attic Willem De Kooning

Between 1946 and 1949 de kooning produced a series of highly abstract black and white paintings that culminated in attic in which angular thrusting forms collide with organic curvilinear ones to yield a high pitched expressive picture.

Attic willem de kooning.

Mixed media on board 14 9 16 x 18 5 16 inches. The show was little noticed in the press but it jolted the artists of the. One of the most prominent and celebrated of the abstract expressionist painters willem de kooning s pictures typify the vigorous gestural style of the movement. In 1943 he married painter elaine fried.

His largest painting up to that date the work exemplifies. De kooning was already forty four years old when he had his first solo exhibition at the charlie egan gallery in the spring of 1948. Willem de kooning born april 24 1904 rotterdam netherlands died march 19 1997 east hampton new york u s dutch born american painter who was one of the leading exponents of abstract expressionism particularly the form known as action painting during the 1930s and 40s de kooning worked simultaneously in figurative and abstract modes but by about 1945 these two tendencies. April 24 1904 march 19 1997 was a dutch american abstract expressionist artist.

Most of the paintings in the exhibition resembled untitled compositions painted in black and white with vaguely recognizable shapes and complex plays of figure and ground. Willem de kooning was a central figure in abstract expressionism an art movement that espoused the painterly actions of the artist as a sign of his or her emotions. He was born in rotterdam and moved to the united states in 1926 becoming an american citizen in 1962. Perhaps more than any of his contemporaries he developed a radically abstract style of painting that fused cubism surrealism and expressionism while many of his colleagues moved from figuration to.

Figural elements punctuate the ambiguous space in attic 1949 one in a series of de kooning postwar black and white compositions. Oil enamel and newspaper transfer on canvas 61 7 8 x 81 inches. The dense web of white shapes and black lines makes it difficult to sort out relationships between form. Oil enamel and newspaper transfer on canvas 61 7 8 x 81 inches.

The willem de kooning foundation. Even the artist s most abstract works says scholar richard shiff. In the years after world war ii de kooning painted in a style that came to be. The foundation fosters the study and appreciation of willem de kooning s life and work through research exhibitions and educational programs.

Summary of willem de kooning.