Willem de Kooning at MoMA Delivers

De Kooning's work reads as a study in contradictions. It is obvious from his "Woman" paintings that De Kooning both loves and hates the female form. By the late 1940s, a period when de Kooning's work gained momentum and  popularity, when abstraction and figures first became his signature, it is hard to know where to place de Kooning. He loved portraiture and his studies of women show some abstract realism, but his layered color, and unnatural exaggerations of form make it hard to cite his work as purely "expressionistic." There is abstraction in the way he layers his paint, and clouds his art work in sensatonal and glaringly unrealistic color. According to The New York Times, "from painting to painting, the single seated figure in the series grows less naturalistic, begins to lose its contours, to dissolve into its surroundings."

 

Seeing De Looking clearly in one visit is purely impossible. I expect to go back to MoMA from Staten Island for repeated viewings. Luckily “De Kooning: A Retrospective”  runs through January 9 at the Museum of Modern Art. For more information contact (212) 708-9400, moma.org. Enjoy the chaos and the complication that is de Kooning's work. He is a curious figure in the art world because he can not be put into a clever little box and be called a modern abstract painter. There are layers to de Kooning's work. I urge you readers to discover the chaos for yourself. It's worth the trip.