Willem de Kooning

Willem de Kooning (1904–1997) was a first-generation member of the New York School, a group of American artists who rose to prominence in the mid- to late 1940s and were noted for their dynamic, “allover” approach to abstract painting. Over a career that spanned seven decades, de Kooning’s singular contributions to abstraction and figuration set him apart from his peers, and his influence drastically shifted the direction of postwar American painting.

Born on April 24, 1904, in Rotterdam, Netherlands, de Kooning enrolled at the Rotterdam Academy of Fine Arts and Techniques at the age of thirteen, while simultaneously working as an apprentice at a commercial and decorative arts firm. In his early years in New York, his work fluctuated between biomorphic abstraction and more traditional depictions of the figure. In the 1940s de Kooning further developed his particular style of abstraction, frequently creating complex compositions from fragments of figural drawings. In the second half of the 1950s, de Kooning’s style shifted into abstraction based on landscapes. In the last two decades of his career, de Kooning remained a tireless innovator, returning with aplomb to printmaking and sculpture. De Kooning was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964 and has been the subject of numerous major exhibitions and publications. In 1950 he represented the United States at the 25th Biennale de Venezia, and in 1954 was the subject of a retrospective there. In 1968 Thomas Hess organized the first museum retrospective of his work for the Museum of Modern Art, New York, which traveled domestically and to Europe. De Kooning retrospectives have also been held at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and touring venues (1983–84); National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, and touring venues (1994–95, paintings); and the Museum of Modern Art, New York (2011–12).

Source: Gagosian