Saturday Review - De Kooning Essay

SATURDAY REVIEW ISSUE 1 10 DECEMBER 2011

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Willem De Kooning (1904-1997) a marquis member of the abstract expressionist movement, was renowned for extended gestural brush strokes, and the uncanny ability to express complex ideas through minimalist compositions. The signature paintings of his late career are characterized by the long trails of his brush. They are among some of the most notable abstract expressionist works of the 20th century.

More than any of his contemporaries, De

Kooning's work was contiguous. His process involved constant re-interpretation of previous works, and a continued progression and re-exploration of themes. Every time a painting was finished, De Kooning moved it to the right, and began work on the next one, each new composition defined and understood within the context of its predecessors. De Kooning's work contains a linear narrative of his life, constantly exploring and deconstructing his own work in order to further its development.

Entering De Kooning's retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, the color and chaos of his early work is startling. The exhibition organizes itself into rooms informed by

Woman I Oil on Canvas, 1950

Woman V Oil on Canvas, 1953

DE KOONING’S VOYAGE a retrospective analysis

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Tree in Naples Oil on Canvas, 1960

the stages of his career, and it is immediately apparent that De Kooning was not always as cool and restrained as his later paintings would suggest.

While the earliest paintings are remarable in their realism, the paintings quickly diverge from reality with distorted perspectives and cubist tendencies. He describes an unmistakable fascination with inebriation, and a penchant for physical pleasures. The obsession with women thematically dominates, and his work goes through stages of intense fixation, the flesh tones combining with vivid colors to augment the sensuality of his phantasmagoria. The Woman paintings of the early 50's are at times quite graphic, depicting nudes with reckless abandon, garnering his work the label of vulgar at the time.

Two Figures in a Landscape Oil on Canvas, 1963

De Kooning's painting drifted away from figures, at times removing them completely in favor of landscapes and abstract compositions, but returning always to the sensuous forms that proved inescapable.

The influences of Pollack and of Rothko can be traced as his work borders on pure abstraction, entire canvases of color and strokes, without figures. These canvases full and frustrating, jubilantly celebrating a disregard for emotional curation. The activity of their compositions quickly becomes overwhelming, as the emotional and sensory articulations manifest themselves through exuberant uses of paint and overbearing color choices. The sheer volume of stimulation confounds interpretations and frustrates thematic cohesion.

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“THE FINAL ROOM EMANATES A DEFINITIVE AURA OF CALM�

The final room emanates a definitive aura of calm, a solidity that implies a stable destination. This feeling is extolled through De Kooning's exploration of white space.

Suddenly the burden of his intense colors begins to disappear, covered over by white paint, leaving the long graceful brush-marks that characterize his later works. These distillations of form begin to describe the failure of his more convoluted earlier works.

The paintings from the 1980's scale back the use of color as well, simplifying his language into precisely formed sentiments.

This destination is a mindset that emerged after a lifelong voyage described narrative of his oeuvre. To reach this mindset one must journey through his archive of

paintings, discovering the vulgar, the disturbing, and the profound within his work, offering insight and appreciation for the respite he found. It asserts itself as a welcome relief from the chaos of color and composition that characterize the canon of his mid-life work.

Upon weathering this storm, De Kooning's work feels wise, informed by his struggles, but not unaware of the journey that brought him there. It is here, after 60 years of painting, that he has poignantly found his expressive voice, his execution flawless. The numbered lines of his brush say more with less, using simple language to relate a complex, rocky journey.

-Garrett Sibinga

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