"Flesh was the reason why oil painting was invented"

[kqu...@nycp.org]

Artist Willem de Kooning dead at 92

March 19, 1997
Web posted at: 7:26 p.m. EST (0026 GMT)
EAST HAMPTON, New York (AP) -- Willem de Kooning, a dominant figure in
the abstract expressionist art movement, died Tuesday. He was 92.

The Dutch-born painter died at about 6:30 a.m. in his studio, said
Donald MacKillop, owner of Williams Funeral Home.

De Kooning influenced artists of the New York School that came to
prominence after World War II, but his own work was not limited to one
style. He swung between periods of pure abstraction and using
rudimentary subject matter.

Painting "is a way of living today, a style of living so to speak ...
that is where the form of it lies," he said in an oft-quoted statement
on "What Abstract Art Means To Me," read at a seminar at the Museum of
Modern Art in Manhattan in 1951.

His canvases ranged from the black and white "Night Square" (1950-51) to
the colorful "Woman" series to early 1980s abstracts that were
overwhelmingly done in primary colors.

Forty huge paintings he created from 1981 to 1987 are part of a special
touring exhibit, "Objects of Desire," currently at the Museum of Modern
Art.

De Kooning continued to paint well into his 80s despite being diagnosed
with Alzheimer's disease, which led a court to appoint conservators for
his assets.

Recognition came from buyers as well as critics: His 1944 "Pink Lady"
brought $3.63 million at a Sotheby's auction in 1987. Two years later
his 1955 masterpiece "Interchange" sold for $20.6 million.

Those financial heights were far removed from his lower-middle-class
Dutch background. He was born in Rotterdam on April 24, 1904, and when
he was 5 his parents divorced. His father got legal custody but his
mother took him away by force -- a fact some critics were to make much
of in explaining his art.

He began work in a commercial art and design firm, which enrolled him in
evening art courses at the Rotterdam Academy. In 1924 he spent a year in
Belgium working as a commercial artist.

Back in Holland, he decided to leave for the United States. Stowing away
on a ship, he ended up in New Jersey in 1926.

By 1927, he moved to Manhattan and began meeting such artists as Stuart
Davis and Arshile Gorky. Employment by the Federal Arts Project in 1935
gave him the chance to paint full time.

Early figures of men were succeeded by figures of women painted in
glowing pinks and greens.

"Flesh was the reason why oil painting was invented," de Kooning once
said.

He shared a studio with Gorky and gained status among experimenting
artists. His first one-man show came in 1948 at age 44. When his
"Excavation" won the major prize at the Art Institute of Chicago's 1951
exhibition, it was viewed as a vindication for the entire avant garde.

But in the 1950s de Kooning returned to the figure. He worked for three
years on "Woman I," which was bought by the Museum of Modern Art.

The "Woman" paintings were controversial among some artists and critics
because of his abandonment of pure abstraction. To the uninitiated, they
were shocking for other reasons: the slashes of color, the mix of
abstraction and realism, and the complicated attitude toward women they
seemed to represent.

The complexity of his works came in part from his habit of repeatedly
reworking the surface of his paintings.

"As to (a) painting being finished, I always have a miserable time over
that," he once said. "But it's getting better now -- I just stop."

De Kooning was married in 1943 to fellow painter Elaine Fried. They
separated later. At 52, he had a daughter, Lisa, with Joan Ward. But he
never divorced Elaine and, in 1978, she returned to him.

She handled all his affairs until her death in 1989. Then a court
appointed Lisa and a lawyer co-conservators of his assets, estimated at
more than $7 million.

De Kooning became an American citizen in 1961.

A funeral was scheduled for Saturday at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in
East Hampton. A public memorial service was to be held later.

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