Figurative art, abstraction and European influence: on Willem de Kooning and Abstract Expressionism
Introduction
Willem de Kooning, one of the most famous names in Abstract Expressionism alongside with Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock, did not begin his career as an “abstract expressionist”, like most of his colleagues at the New York School. De Kooning began with figurative paintings before exploring the world of abstraction and gestural paintings.
De Kooning, even struggling alongside with his peers of the first phase of the New York School to put the United States at the top of the art world, to the detriment of the until then indisputable European (and especially French) art, never denied the influence of the Renaissance or the avant-garde movements from the turn of the 19th century to the 20th century in their work, whether early or late in his career.
Here, I compare two distinct works of de Kooning. First, a painting from the early stage of his career, in the 1940s, before fortune and fame. Then, a painting from the late 1960s, when the artist had already gained momentum with his famous “Women” series, had obtained international recognition and had enjoyed money and prestige.
“Standing Man”, 1942
De Kooning began as a devotee of European art. Still in Rotterdam, in his native country, he declared that Painting was something “for men with a beard”: great men as Cézanne or Monet. When he still thought he would pursue a career in commercial painting and design, he admitted that his great inspirations came from the European avant-gardes and painters like Paul Klee, Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso.
In 1926, as he migrated to the United States, he began working as a house painter to pay the bills. At this point, the very fluid paints and the big brushes would never leave him.
In “Standing Man” (1942), currently belonging to the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art collection in Connecticut, De Kooning makes clear his greatest reference: Picasso and the Rose Period, where the warm colors, the earthy tones and shades of pink predominate, where we can see the solitary figures, the people from the streets. Other works from the same period would bring the Rose Period as a major influence, such as “Seated Woman” (1940) and “Pink Lady” (1944).
In “Standing Man”, there are no clear gestures that would mark the action paintings of Abstract Expressionism. The brushstrokes are contained and almost veiled, the areas of color are homogeneous, smooth and without relief. The oil paint, very fluid and with low viscosity, is translucent and matte. We can see the canvas behind the paint at some areas. On the face of the man depicted are some echoes of figures painted by Picasso, while the forms on the left and right at the top of the picture bring elements of Analytical Cubism.
Toward abstraction
Photographer and filmmaker Rudolph Burckhardt, de Kooning’s friend, wrote in 1989: “Once he said he’d like to paint like Ingres and Soutine — both at the same time. He made a few exquisite, Ingres-like drawings (one, a portrait of Elaine [his wife]), but then the said that if he kept this up he’d go crazy”.
In that way, De Kooning announced his passage into the world of abstraction. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, he began to do more abstract works, but still with figurative elements, with the presence of organic forms influenced by Joan Miró and other surrealists, as in “Elegy” (1939), “The Wave” (1942- 1944), and “Pink Angels” (1945).
In those years, New York School names like Rothko, Pollock, Barnett Newman and Franz Kline begin to make headlines. The eyes begin to turn to the effervescent scene of Abstract Expressionism. Michel Seuphor, a Belgium and French painter and art critic, wrote in the late 1950s: “Abstract art is so successful that it is in the process of shaping the face of our century”.
The “fight” between Europe and the United States was not just a battle for the domination of the art scene. It was also a struggle to project an image capable of dealing with the hard blow of World War II. The horror seen during the war, the tens of millions of deaths, the atomic bombs in Japan, the nuclear arsenals capable of decimating the planet: in the face of such horror, the definition of human being and reason was in peril. Everything seemed lost and meaningless. Artists sought to react to this vacuum.
In 1951, at the occasion of the exhibition that featured several artists of the New York School, Robert Motherwell wrote that “every intelligent modern painter carries the whole culture of modern painting in his head”.
In the 1950s, De Kooning went through a decisive moment: the “Women” series and, after, the return to total abstraction with his “landscapes” and “highway paintings”: not, in fact, landscapes or highways, but the manifestation of sensations in colors and brushstrokes. Those new sensations and tones came from his move to East Hampton, in 1961. The more calm and bucolic environment brought a new palette to the artist, with lighter colors.
“The Visit”, 1966/1967
In the late 1950s, de Kooning was concerned about the meaning of “Abstract Expressionism”. The top names at the New York School earned money and fame. What was once controvert and shocking was becoming the norm. Worse: it became the art to be challenged and beaten. Pop Art flourished and figures like Andy Warhol and Jasper Johns became the ones who made the noise. There was the fear of Abstract Expressionism becoming academic, a modern mannerist style.
In de Kooning’s 1966/67 “The Visit”, at Tate collection, he was, once again, criticized in the same manner as when he presented his series “Women”: those who advocated pure abstraction saw their abstract pictures with some figurative elements as “regressive”, as a “betrayal”.
In “The Visit”, again the symbiosis between abstraction and figurative art and the presence of the female figure. In the ocean of colors and brushstrokes, it is possible to see a face, a mouth, legs, and breasts. The presence of the mouth is almost the element that “delivers” at once the human body. As the artist once said about his working process:
“I cut out a lot of mouths. First of all, I thought everything ought to have a mouth. Maybe it was like a pun. Maybe it’s sexual. But, whatever it is, I used to cut out a lot of mouths and then I painted those figures and then I put the mouth more or less in the place where it was supposed to be. It always turned out to be very beautiful and it helped me immensely to have this real thing”.
Here, de Kooning shows the importance of gestures, such as a true Abstract Expressionist: a very fluid paint, made from great addition of binder, like linseed oil. The velocity of the paint allows the artist to print strength and movement, each gesture revealed by the stroke. In this work, thick and dynamic strokes creates aggressiveness and urgency, a woman figure full of anger and despair.
At some areas in the canvas, the high fluidity of the paint reveals itself in the marks it leaves when it drains, leaving translucent and opaque stains. The quick and dynamic strokes of paint, concentrated in the center and at the bottom of the painting reveal a technique “a la Pollock”, to throw the paint against the canvas, without touching with the brush. He forcefully projects arm and hand toward the canvas, causing these dynamic splashes. It is also possible to observe the marked thick and long strokes, making clear each de Kooning gesture, its speeds and directions. Often they are more curved and slow, sometimes faster and straight.
Some areas of the painting reveal earlier layers of paint and, thus, applications over applications. The double date of the painting shows that de Kooning worked for several months in the canvas, as well as in the series “Women”. Editing and complementing the work. Scratching off and starting over. Layer on layer, in wet on wet applications. At some point, painting a new layer while the previous one has not dried yet. Alternatively, rubbing with a cloth, or pulling out the still fresh paint with a palette knife to start a new application.
On the edges and corners of the canvas, we can see more hardness, matte tones and even a stain of a paint that has been taken off the canvas, scraped or wiped with a cloth. They are the earlier layers of the painting. As we head to the center, we see a greater concentration of paint, more plastic and shiny, less translucent, more bulky, indicating more recent applications.
In the picture, it is possible to identify the figure of a woman, lying on her back, with her legs open and her knees raised. As the artist would later explain, there was influence of the European Beaux-Arts as well as the recent popular culture that put the female figure in the spotlight with a sexual approach (the pin-ups, Warhol’s Marilyn Monroes etc).
In the upper right corner, we can see a second presence, which would be the so-called “visit”: a hand extended towards the woman or a face seen in profile. Because of this, the title “The Visit” came as a suggestion from one of the artist’s assistants, who said that the composition resembled medieval religious paintings, from the moment of the Annunciation. The central figure like Mary, her legs open, evoking the birth of Christ, while the visit as the Angel.
Others also see echoes of Coubert’s “L’Origine du Monde” (1866), where there are also open and revealing female legs. Other analyzes include the influence, once again, of Picasso and his “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” (1907).
Again, the presence of the echoes of European and French art even at a time that “Abstract Expressionism had already won” and New York was a more than established art pole. //
Sources
- “Willem de Kooning, 1904–1997: Content as a Glimpse” — Barbara Hess (Taschen)
- “Abstract Expressionism” — Barbara Hess (Taschen)
- Tate: http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/kooning-the-visit-t01108
- Art Work UK — “Artwork in focus: The Visit”, by Victoria Ibbett: https://artuk.org/discover/stories/artwork-in-focus-the-visit
- Willem de Kooning Foundation: http://www.dekooning.org/the-artist/artworks/paintings/the-visit-1966-67_1966#68
Guilherme Dearo (1989, São Paulo, Brazil) is a poet, playwright, writer and journalist.
