De Kooning, Willem (1904–97). Painter, sculptor, and printmaker
A preeminent *abstract expressionist, he created a thoroughly contemporary form of expression, filled with raw energy, anxiety, brazen transgressions of good taste, and delight in the process of painting, while at the same time extending traditional European painting’s spatial, structural, chromatic, and technical principles. Forward-looking yet infused with the history of art, this work exerted greater influence over subsequent painters than any other mid-twentieth-century artist’s. Rich, fresh, and indeterminate, it offered myriad pathways to artists interested in figurative painting as well as abstraction. A charismatic, handsome, and eloquent art star, he also came to personify the romantic myth of the artistic life through commitment to his craft through years of poverty.... ...
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