De Kooning Is De King at MOMA

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http://www.villagevoice.com/2011-09-28/art/de-kooning-is-de-king-at-moma/


© 2011 The Willem de Kooning Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Welcome, Dutchman! De Kooning's Pink Angels, c. 1945

Even after the carnage of World War II, Europe still looked down on their boisterous American savior as culturally backward. But Abstract Expressionism demolished that notion, and even in today's fragmented art world, New York remains a painter's town. With a major retrospective of Willem de Kooning (1904–97) colonizing the Museum of Modern Art's sixth floor, Voice critics Martha Schwendener and R.C. Baker discuss why this Dutch immigrant—who once said, "Art never seems to make me peaceful or pure"—still matters.

Schwendener: Most obviously, de Kooning is the original painter's painter in America. Even at the beginning of the New York School, they all knew: This was the guy. De Kooning said Pollock "broke the ice"—which meant either that he showed where painting could go from there or that he was the first American painter of international renown—but everyone in New York knew that de Kooning had already been in his studio for 15 years—

Baker: Slugging it out.

Schwendener: Yeah. De Kooning biographer Mark Stevens said something along the lines that de Kooning was the most famous painter who threw everything away in the '40s.





***love de kooning.

[Tikki]

1. So do I...

Tikki