Willem de Kooning

Willem de Kooning

De Kooning - An American Master

Written by Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan


An epic book (it took ten years to write) about the epic life of a great painter and the Abstract Expressionist scene of post-war New York.

An excerpt from a 2004 review in The New York Times written by the artist, Red Grooms:

 "One of the great strengths of this book is its sense of an artist in his studio. At times the authors disappear, and rather than just read about de Kooning we watch him apply paint, scrape it off and attack again, trace sections of a painting and pin them on other parts to see how they work, stare at pictures for hours, destroy canvases, fly into rages of frustration and fling furniture about. He had a loft on Broadway just below 13th Street in the late 50's, and from across the street we could see him working. Painting was his addiction; it was what he did for hours and hours every day."

I left the background of his studio blank and

 painted the art on his hands instead.

Acrylic on canvas, 18" x 20"