pdf, 465.5 KB
pdf, 465.5 KB
pdf, 259.02 KB
pdf, 259.02 KB

Willem de Kooning in his quotes -the Dutch-born artist on his painting art & artistic life in Abstract Expressionism in the United States - free resource for students, pupils, art-lovers and teachers in American art history

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Willem de Kooning’s quotes describe his characteristic art approach - his ‘attitude’ - as he liked to call it. De Kooning took a characteristic position in American Abstract Expressionism in the 1940-50’s. He had an abstract, as well as a representational side in his art, and both aspect are recognizable in his art-works. It was the Russian-born painter in France Chaim Soutine who inspired him most.

Pollock and Willem de kooning were seen as the informal leading artists of Abstract Expressionism in America. ‘Gesture painting’ was for both artists most important in creating their art. But moreover for De Kooning the many hours of just sitting in the studio - watching and ‘inhaling the painting’ were essential in his way of creation.
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Selection of some quotes of American artist Willem de Kooning - as a short introduction of his extended quotes in the PDF:

  • ’Art never seems to make me peaceful or pure. I always seem to be wrapped in the melodrama of vulgarity. I do not think… …of art as a situation of comfort.’ - quote of De Kooning, from: ‘Beyond the Aesthetic’, Robert Motherwell, in ‘Design 47’, U.S. April 1946

  • ’To me the Oriental idea of beauty is that ‘it isn’t there’… …It is the same thing I don’t like in Suprematism, Purism and non-objectivity… …I do like the idea that they - the ‘pots and pans’ (in painting), I mean – are always in relation to man.’ - quote from De Kooning’s lecture ‘Trans/formation’, at Studio 35, United States, 1950

  • ’I am always in the picture somewhere. The amount of space I use I am always in, I seem to move around in it. And there seems to be a time when I lose sight of what I wanted to do, and then I am out of it. If the picture has a countenance I keep it. If it hasn’t, I throw it away.’ - his quote, cited in ‘Modern Artists in America, First Series’, 1952 p. 12
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    selection of free art-resources on American artist Willem (Bill) de Kooning:

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