Woman, I
William de Kooning. 1950-1952 C.E. New York. Oil on canvas
Woman, I reflects the age-old cultural ambivalence between reverence for and fear of the power of the feminine.
William de Kooning. 1950-1952 C.E. New York. Oil on canvas
Woman, I reflects the age-old cultural ambivalence between reverence for and fear of the power of the feminine.
• Linear
• Energetic line
• Vibrant color palette
• Flat space
• Abstraction
Function
• To show a different view of what a woman looks like
Abstract Expressionism- aka The New York School
- first AMERICAN avant-garde art movement
- reaction to Minimalist version of abstraction
- expressionism was more active
- ACTION PAINTING
Willem de Kooning, Woman I, 1950-1952, oil on canvas, Museum of Modern Art, New York
CONTENT
- angry woman baring her great fierce teeth and large eyes
- "large bulbous breasts" are satirical, reflect those on magazine covers
- smile is influence by woman selling Camel cigarettes
- slashing paint onto canvas FORM
- jagged lines create an overpowering image FORM
- smile is cut out of a female smile from an ad in a magazine
- blank stare; frozen grin
- vague background
- stereotypes - ironic comment on movie and advertising industries PURPOSE
- 1/6 in these series of this woman
- influenced by Paleolithic goddesses to pin-up girls
- thick and black lines dominate FORM
Cross cultural: images of women
- Olympia - Manet
- Venus of Urbino - Titian
- Rebellious Silence - Neshat
Style: Abstract Expressionism
“Working, as was his habit, with numerous drawings and collage fragments, de Kooning
filled his canvas with image upon image, only to scrape away the figure and
repeatedly begin painting anew,” Zilczer writes. “Elaine de Kooning estimated that
some two hundred images preceded what is now the final state of Woman I.”
Subject: De Kooning described the figurative motif of this painting not as a representation but as
a thing slapped on the canvas, liberating him from formal anxieties. Woman I "did one thing for
me: it eliminated composition, arrangement, relationships, light, because that [motif] was the
one thing I wanted to get hold of. I thought I might as well stick to the idea that it's got two
eyes, a nose and mouth and neck."
De Kooning arrive in the U.S. in 1926 as a stowaway
he was an established successful artist well before doing the series of Women
De Kooning’s well-known Woman series, begun in 1950 the time after meeting his future wife
and culminating in Woman VI, owes much to Picasso, not least in the aggressive, penetrative
breaking apart of the figure, and the spaces around it. Picasso’s late works show signs that he, in
turn, saw images of works by Pollock and de Kooning.[6]:17 De Kooning led the 1950s’ art world to
a new level known as the American Abstract Expressionism. “From 1940 to the present, Woman
has manifested herself in de Kooning’s paintings and drawings as at once the focus of desire,
frustration, inner conflict, pleasure, … and as posing problems of conception and handling as
demanding as those of an engineer.”[7] The female figure is an important symbol for de
Kooning’s art career and his own life. This painting is considered as a significant work of art for
the museum through its historical context about the post World War II history and American
feminist movement. Additionally, the medium of this painting makes it different from others of
de Kooning’s time.
Themes
• Identity
• Inner Vision
• Identity
• Inner Vision
Terms
• abstraction
