Willem De Kooning (Library of American Art) - Hardcover

Diane Waldman

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0810911345 ISBN 13: 9780810911345

Publisher: Harry N. Abrams, 1988

Synopsis

Traces the life of the Dutch-born artist, shows paintings from each part of his career, and discusses the evolution of his style

About this title

About the Author:

Sally Yard has taught art history at Mount Holyoke and Amhert Colleges, the University of California, San Diego, and the University of San Diego, where she is associate professor and chair of the department of fine arts. Her books include Willem de Kooning: The First Twenty-Sex Years in New York and Francis Bacon, coauthored with Hugh Davies.

From Publishers Weekly:

While some critics see an artistic decline in de Kooning's output from the 1970s onward, Waldman, deputy director of the Guggenheim Museum, champions his "great and innovative late body of work." Countering charges that his flamboyant "Woman" series is sexist because it portrays females as objects of male manipulation, the author retorts, "This is how women were perceived in the 1950s." She finds de Kooning's goddess-whore icons "as resplendent as any Venus that has come down to us through the ages." Combining stuffy solemnity and critical overkill, this study is nevertheless useful for its analyses of individual paintings. Its 112 reproductions (half in color) include urban landscapes, portraits fusing the real and the imaginary, black-and-white abstractions, knotty sculpture. Also here are the simple paintings of the '80s, an emptying out of all but essential shape, line and color.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
• Publication date: 1988
• ISBN 10: 0810911345
• ISBN 13: 9780810911345
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 156