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Hollis Taggart
Willem de Kooning
Woman II
11 3/4 x 8 1/2 in. (29.8 x 21.6 cm)
description
A pioneer of Abstract Expressionism, Willem de Kooning worked in both abstract and figurative modes throughout his career. His groundbreaking "Women" paintings of 1950-1955 famously explore the intersection of vigorous gesture painting and the representation of the female body. Following his successful first one-man show of black and white paintings at the Charles Egan Gallery in 1948, de Kooning turned his attention to the female nude in the early 1950s. The subject was rich with art historical associations from ancient fertility Venus statues to Picasso’s Cubist masterpieces. Aggressive, imposing, and even grotesque, de Kooning's Women paintings feature intensely colored brushwork and archaic, broad-shouldered figures. The formidable women in these works possess enlarged breasts, wide eyes, and toothy smiles that obliquely reference 1950s magazine advertisements. Simultaneously iconic and demonic, de Kooning’s women reflect mid-century issues of femininity, evoking stereotypes of the femme fatale and the devouring mother.
The drawing “Woman II,” which was created around the same time as his acclaimed Women paintings, is an exceptional example of the hallmark expressivity and deconstruction of the female form that are central to these paintings. In this drawing, the body dissolves into contingent forms, marked by sharp angles and energetic lines; De Kooning reimagines the female body more as an energy field than a visually bounded, coherent entity. Though this work may seem like a preparatory sketch for his Women paintings, it is worth noting that drawing and painting did not exist in a hierarchy for de Kooning. Instead, the two were deeply intertwined for him and he held a deeply drawing-based approach to painting, remarking in 1975, “I draw while painting, and I don’t know the difference between painting and drawing.” (1)
Willem de Kooning was born in Rotterdam, Holland in 1904. He received commercial and fine art training in his native country before sailing as a stowaway to America in 1926, where he soon made connections in the New York art world. He developed a close friendship with Arshile Gorky, who had a decisive stylistic influence on de Kooning, and in 1929 he met John D. Graham, who became an early champion of de Kooning’s work. Now considered one of the greatest figures of Abstract Expressionism, de Kooning paved the way for the next generation postwar artists.
1. Susan F. Lake, “Methods and Materials: Woman, Sag Harbor,” in ed. John Elderfield De Kooning: A Retrospective. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2012, pp. 369-370.
The drawing “Woman II,” which was created around the same time as his acclaimed Women paintings, is an exceptional example of the hallmark expressivity and deconstruction of the female form that are central to these paintings. In this drawing, the body dissolves into contingent forms, marked by sharp angles and energetic lines; De Kooning reimagines the female body more as an energy field than a visually bounded, coherent entity. Though this work may seem like a preparatory sketch for his Women paintings, it is worth noting that drawing and painting did not exist in a hierarchy for de Kooning. Instead, the two were deeply intertwined for him and he held a deeply drawing-based approach to painting, remarking in 1975, “I draw while painting, and I don’t know the difference between painting and drawing.” (1)
Willem de Kooning was born in Rotterdam, Holland in 1904. He received commercial and fine art training in his native country before sailing as a stowaway to America in 1926, where he soon made connections in the New York art world. He developed a close friendship with Arshile Gorky, who had a decisive stylistic influence on de Kooning, and in 1929 he met John D. Graham, who became an early champion of de Kooning’s work. Now considered one of the greatest figures of Abstract Expressionism, de Kooning paved the way for the next generation postwar artists.
1. Susan F. Lake, “Methods and Materials: Woman, Sag Harbor,” in ed. John Elderfield De Kooning: A Retrospective. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2012, pp. 369-370.
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