de Kooning: A Retrospective
by habituallychic
09 . 06 . 11
If you live in New York, I suggest you don’t look at the weather forecast for this week. All the rain has me wishing that de Kooning: A Retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art was open now. It would be a perfect rainy day activity but unfortunately it doesn’t open until Saturday, September 18, 2011. As I’ve mentioned many times before, I love abstract expressionism but I know not everyone feels the same. I hope this exhibition that features over seven decades of the artist’s work will open their eyes to the beauty that can be found in non-representational art. Although, de Kooning was known to include figures of women in some of his works, they aren’t exactly known to be beauties. It’s in these works that you can see his influence on contemporary artists such as Cecily Brown. “This is the first major museum exhibition devoted to the full scope of the career of Willem de Kooning, widely considered to be among the most important and prolific artists of the 20th century.” It will run through January 9, 2012.
Woman I, 1950-52
Willem de Kooning in the studio 1953
Pink Angels, 1945
Willem de Kooning in his East Hampton studio,1977
East Hampton, 1968
Interchanged, 1955
East Hampton Studio
Orestes, 1947
East Hampton, 1952
Willem de Kooning in the studio, 1989
Willem de Kooning, 1950
East Hampton, 1968
East Hampton
East Hampton
Park Rosenberg, 1957
Water Mill, 1960
Woman, 1951
East Hampton, 1971
Rider, 1985
10 Comments
Just wonderful, i find his work so utterly thrilling.
Just gorgeous!
How exciting. I don’t live in NY but my brother does so I’ll get him to go to the exhibition and report back. Love de Kooning’s work – and his East Hampton studio’s not bad either!
In your post you said that you love Abstract Expressionism but “know not everyone feels the same”. I always find that disheartening. To each their own, I get that however one misses out on so much life when one is not open to all creativity. In that I mean all art speaks to who we are. It speaks to our intuition. Our emotions. It is what binds us as human beings, next to language, I dunno, I am guilty of being a romantic naive nerd. Shoot me. But to limit one self in the realm of creative expression, be it art, design, etc is to limit your expression of life. ~best
Hi Heather! Thankyou for this post. I love art, in particular abstract expressionism, and am fascinated by the artists behind the works, finding out about their lives. What I wouldn’t give to go to that retrospective. I live in Spain and don’t get to New York that often! Still I can’t complain, I live in the home of Picasso!
What fun to have lived in East Hampton when all of these talented artists were creating their masterpieces – you always have the best images and I love the one from 1989 and the beautiful, colorful canvases.
great collection of de kooning pics- thanks for sharing them! can’t wait to see this show and see all his work.
Amanda @ stylerelish.blogspot.com
I don’t think that I am going to get to see this show which saddens me as I am a such an admirer of his work.
I hope that the show will feature his late pieces as well which have been decried in the past as he did them while he was suffering from Alzheimer’s. They are very lyrical.
Very inspiring. Thanks for the post! I will trade weather with you this week. It’s very hot here in Southern CA, and I love the rain!
About 5 years ago I determine to learn enough about abstract expressionism so that I could appreciate it at a comfortable level…..I’ve grown to love the energy and movement; the sense of life that certain paintings give me. I wish that you would send some of the rain to So. Cal.–it is blazing hot and dry and miserable. Thanks for this super post. Mary