Willem de Kooning

1904 - 1997

Biography

Willem de Kooning began to train in 1916 as a commercial artist; attending evening courses at the Rotterdam Academie voor Beldende Kunsten en Technische Wetenschappen (Rotterdam Academy) until 1924.

He also studied at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels and the van Schelling School of Design in Antwerp. In 1926 de Kooning moved to the US where he worked illegally in New York as a commercial artist, window dresser, sign painter and carpenter. He met many influential artists of the day and began to paint himself. By 1935 he was painting full time, sharing a flat with Gorky, who influenced his work. De Kooning was also inspired by the Gestural branch of the New York School, Jackson Pollock and Franz Kline. Contact with Pollock and Kline inspired him to do his first black-and-white abstract works in 1946.

He developed his first 'Women' pictures from 1950, which caused a scandal at first due to their deliberate vulgarity. It caused a sensation within the art world as the works were representational while the dominant theme was abstract at that time.. He continued to paint these figures until the 1990s.He also painted abstract landscapes in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Beginning with his participation in the 1954 Venice Biennale, where he was represented with one of his most important works, 'Excavation', de Kooning has been regarded as a leading exponent of Abstract Expressionism.

De Kooning became an American citizen in 1962 and in 1964 he received the 'Presidential medal of Freedom.

The latter years of his career were filled with numerous shows and retrospectives.

Images

Untitled 1968 oil on paper mounted on canvas 101.7 x 76.2 cm © The Willem de Kooning Foundation, New York / ARS, NY and DACS, London 2010. The depiction of artworks herein should not necessarily be considered an intimation of ownership.

Untitled XVIII 1986 oil on canvas 178.1 cm x 203.2 cm © The Willem de Kooning Foundation, New York / ARS, NY and DACS, London 2010. The depiction of artworks herein should not necessarily be considered an intimation of ownership.