Willem de Kooning

1904–1997

Willem de Kooning, ‘The Visit’ 1966–7
The Visit 1966–7
© Willem de Kooning Revocable Trust/ARS, NY and DACS, London 2019
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In Tate St Ives

Modern Art and St Ives: New directions after 1960

In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Rooms

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Biography

Willem de Kooning (; Dutch: [ˈʋɪləm də ˈkoːnɪŋ]; April 24, 1904 – March 19, 1997) was a Dutch American abstract expressionist artist. He was born in Rotterdam and moved to the United States in 1926, becoming an American citizen in 1962. In 1943, he married painter Elaine Fried.

In the years after World War II, de Kooning painted in a style that came to be referred to as abstract expressionism or "action painting", and was part of a group of artists that came to be known as the New York School. Other painters in this group included Jackson Pollock, Elaine de Kooning, Lee Krasner, Franz Kline, Arshile Gorky, Mark Rothko, Hans Hofmann, Nell Blaine, Adolph Gottlieb, Anne Ryan, Robert Motherwell, Philip Guston, Clyfford Still, and Richard Pousette-Dart.

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Abstract expressionism Action painters American Abstract Artists (AAA)

Artworks

Willem de Kooning, ‘The Visit’ 1966–7

Willem de Kooning The Visit

1966–7
T01108
Willem de Kooning, ‘Women Singing II’ 1966

Willem de Kooning Women Singing II

1966
T01178
Willem de Kooning, ‘Landscape at Stanton Street’ 1971

Willem de Kooning Landscape at Stanton Street

1971
View by appointment P77158
Willem de Kooning, ‘Untitled’ 1966–7

Willem de Kooning Untitled

1966–7
T01104
Willem de Kooning, ‘Seated Figure on a Bench’ 1972

Willem de Kooning Seated Figure on a Bench

1972
On display at Tate St Ives part of Modern Art and St Ives T03162
Willem de Kooning, ‘Untitled’ 1966–7

Willem de Kooning Untitled

1966–7
T01103

Artist as subject

Robert Mapplethorpe, ‘Willem de Kooning’ 1986

Robert Mapplethorpe Willem de Kooning

1986
AR00148

Features

Willem de Kooning, Women Singing II 1966
In Focus

Women Singing II 1966 by Willem de Kooning

Valerie Hellstein

This In Focus explores Women Singing II – a painting inspired by pop singers that Willem de Kooning saw on television ...

Alberto Burri, ‘Sacking and Red’ 1954
Art Term

Art informel

Art informel is a French term describing a swathe of approaches to abstract painting in the 1940s and 1950s which ...

Hans Hofmann, ‘Nulli Secundus’ 1964
Art Term

Gestural

Gestural is a term used to describe the application of paint in free sweeping gestures with a brush

Josef Albers, ‘Circle’ 1933
Art Term

American Abstract Artists (AAA)

American Abstract Artists (AAA) is an organisation founded in 1936 to promote the appreciation of abstract art in the United ...

Jackson Pollock, ‘Yellow Islands’ 1952
Art Term

Abstract expressionism

Abstract expressionism is the term applied to new forms of abstract art developed by American painters such as Jackson Pollock ...

Llyn Foulkes Who's on Third? (1971-1973)
Tate Etc

Between the rocks and a hard place: Llyn Foulkes: Private view

Mariko Finch1

Since the early 1960s the American artist and musician has created surreal and often politically satirical images, whose influences range ...

Sylvia Sleigh Alloway Portrait of Lawrence Alloway 1965
Tate Papers

Tate Papers no.16: Autumn 2011

British-born Lawrence Alloway (1926–1990) was a leading member of the Independent Group in the 1950s before moving in 1961 ...

Photograph taken by Alexander Liberman of a gathering at his home c.1965
Tate Papers

Art World, Network and Other Alloway Keywords

Courtney J. Martin

The British critic Lawrence Alloway (1926–1990) generated a new vocabulary for American art of the 1960s and 1970s. This ...

Tom Wesselmann Still Life No.20 1962
Tate Papers

Mapping the Field: Lawrence Alloway’s Art Criticism-as-Information

Stephen Moonie

Lawrence Alloway claimed that the art critic should avoid explicit value judgements and instead provide information. This paper historicises Alloway ...

Arshile Gorky drawing in a field at Crooked Run Farm 1944
Tate Etc

My Gorky: Arshile Gorky

Cosima Spender and Mougouch Fielding

The influential Armenian-born American painter Arshile Gorky (1904–1948) was described as the last of the great Surrealists, the first ...

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