Abstract Expressionist master Willem de Kooning is enjoying his most comprehensive career survey to date at MoMA. The exhibit, called simply "A Retrospective", is the first to offer an exhaustive overview of the artist's lengthy career, from his early academic work in Holland to his late, pared down work in the 1980's.
Born in Rotterdam in 1904, he trained for several years at the Rotterdam Academy of Fine Arts and Techniques before moving to New York in the late '30s. De Kooning soon found a place of pride in the burgeoning Abstract Expressionist movement in New York and became one of its most famous and highly regarded proponents.
He married his wife Elaine in '43, and she became a noted artist in her own right. In 1948 he enjoyed his first solo exhibit in New York, and taught at Black Mountain College and at Yale School of Art. In 1950 he joined over a dozen contemporary artists in signing an open letter to New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, accusing it of hostility towards "advanced art."De Kooning moved to East Hampton, Long Island in 1963, where he became a permanent resident. Among his notable awards are the Presidential Medal of Freedom in '64, and the National Medal of Arts in '86. He died in 1997 at the age of 92.
The MoMA exhibit comprises the entirety of its sixth floor, and features 200 works by the artist. While the bulk of his reputation lies somewhere in between his early Dutch work and his spare, late work, his stature is such that an exhibit of this magnitude is a thoroughly worthy endeavor. It is fascinating to see the young work and witness the emergence of a distinct style, only to be presented with the curiously unfinished quality of his final works, works that have largely been overlooked in the discussion of his career.
Those unfamiliar with the breadth of de Kooning's work are in for a treat, as there are a number of landscapes that are dazzling in both their formal balance and rich color juxtaposition. While it is his dynamic portraits of women that are his likely legacy, his work displays an equal mastery and delight in offering beautiful colors and shapes in his landscape work.
Among the dozens of notable artists working loosely under the AbEx label, Armenian-American Arshile Gorky was evidently de Kooning's closest friend in the art world. Despite the notoriety of peers like Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline, and Hans Hoffman, it is likely this exhibit, a MoMA exclusive, will only augment de Kooning's growing legacy and help position him as the most accomplished of AbEx painters.
("de Kooning: A Retrospective" is on view @ the Museum of Modern Art through 01/09/12.)
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