Willem de Kooning: From the Hirshhorn Museum Collection
- ISBN-10
- 0847817695
- ISBN-13
- 9780847817696
- Series
- Willem de Kooning
- Category
- Art / History / General
- Pages
- 218
- Language
- English
- Published
- 1993
- Publisher
- Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution
- Authors
- Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Judith Zilczer
Description
Willem de Kooning (b.1904), one of the great pioneers of Abstract Expressionism, is a towering figure in the history of twentieth-century painting - and widely regarded as America's greatest living painter. The extraordinary Hirshhorn Museum collection of his work - the largest and most significant public collection of his art in the world - comprehensively represents all aspects of his art from the late 1930s to the mid-1980s.
Patron Joseph H. Hirshhorn and his wife, Olga, forged a special friendship with de Kooning, helping to fund his studio, purchasing his paintings, drawings, and sculpture, and corresponding with him for more than a decade. Hirshhorn acquired such emblematic de Kooning paintings as Woman, 1948, from the artist's famed pictures depicting women, and Zurich, 1947, from the daring group of black-and-white works that established his reputation as a leading Abstract Expressionist. Hirshhorn also acquired such pivotal works from the 1950s as Two Woman in the Country, in which de Kooning merged themes of figure and landscape, as well as the first and most ferocious of his paintings on door panels, Woman Sag Harbor, from the 1960s. Rounding out the collection are bronzes from the early 1970s and lyrical abstractions from the 1980s. In addition, Hirshhorn's prescient collection of de Kooning's pastel, ink, and charcoal drawings allows us to see the artist's creative process from early ideas to finished paintings.
Author Judith Zilczer explores the evolution of de Kooning's work from his academic training in his native Rotterdam and his experience in New York in the 1930s through to his development both of intensely expressionist style in evocative abstractions and disturbing figurative works from the 1940s and 1950s. She traces these courses in de Kooning's oeuvre to a number of influences, focusing particularly on his creative response to the urban and cosmopolitan environment of New York City, where he lived from 1926 to 1963 and where he formed friendships with such artists as Arshile Gorky, Franz Kline, and John Graham. Zilczer explores de Kooning's inventive combination of sources from high art and popular culture, for the first time placing his violent imagery within the tradition of caricature in Western art. By contrast, Lynne Cooke outlines de Kooning's later work, made after he moved to rural Long island in the early 1960s, and established his art within the pastoral tradition of painting, as well as within the social context of America in the 1960s. She views his art of these years as analogous to the approaches to art taken by many of the Old Master painters, who achieved "old-age" styles late in life.
A pioneering essay on the technical qualities of de Kooning's work, reporting on results of infrared examination and other conservation analyses, by Zilczer and Susan Lake reveals the extent to which de Kooning's spontaneous-looking imagery was in fact carefully crafted. The book is completed with an extensive bibliography, chronology, and catalog section, making this the most substantial publication of de Kooning's work to date.
Get the book
Other editions
-
- 2014-10-14
- 119 pages
- Paperback
- Rizzoli International Publications
Similar books
-
De Kooning: An American Master
By Mark Stevens, Willem De Kooning, Annalyn Swanas 15 15 O H 153 154 15 15 35 1s 1s 16 16 16 16 26 S 6 7 8 9 0 2 us 1./1 "Despite his intent interest": Sally ... Those were the seminal years: Clement Greenberg, "'American-Type' Painting," An and Culture [Bnstou: Beacon, 1961), 119.
-
De Kooning: A Retrospective
By John Elderfield, Willem De Kooning, Lauren MahonyExcerpted from Sartre's L'être et le néant: Essai d'ontologie phénoménologique. Paris: Librairie Gallimard, 1943. ———–.1956. Being and Nothingness. A Phenomenological Essay on Ontology. Trans. Hazel E. Barnes. New York: Citadel Press.
-
Willem De Kooning: Works, Writings, Interviews
By Sally YardChronicling the life and career of a 20th-century masterWillem de Kooning arrived in the United States in 1926 as a 22-year-old stowaway from Holland--soon to become a leading figure in...
-
Willem de Kooning Nonstop: Cherchez la Femme
By Rosalind E. KraussThis image-rich essay offers a radical rethinking of the ab-ex painter Willem de Kooning by one of the greatest American art critics.
-
Willem de Kooning, 1904-1997: Content as a Glimpse
By Willem De Kooning, Barbara HessAddition to Basic Arts series covering the most prominent pieces of de Kooning's body of work
-
Willem de Kooning in East Hampton
By Willem De Kooning, Diane WaldmanWillem de Kooning in East Hampton
-
Interviews with American Artists
By David SylvesterThis astounding book includes 21 interviews, recorded over the past 40 years, with leading American artists.
-
Willem de Kooning
By Willem De Kooning, Harry F. GaughWillem de Kooning had a restless, probing creativity, pushing on from one style to the next. The battle between abstraction and figuration was essential to his art as he moved...
-
Willem de Kooning: The Life of an Artist
By Louise HawesDiscusses the private and professional life of the twentieth-century American painter who was part of the Abstract Expressionism movement of art.
-
The Essential Willem de Kooning
By Catherine MorrisHere's a series of quick, savvy, entertaining books on artists and pop culture at a popular price. It's for readers who want easy access to information and who are turned...