WOMEN IN ART: ELAINE DE KOONING

Many of you have heard of Willem de Kooning, the widely known Abstract Expressionist Painter. But not many of you have heard of his wife, Elaine de Kooning, Figurative Expressionist Painter. Being very active in the Abstract Expressionist movement in the early 20th Century, Elaine de Kooning was a member of the Eighth Street Club in New York City, which rarely gave memberships to women. Especially during the Abstract Expressionist movement, women were not valued as much as their male counterparts. Which led Elaine de Kooning to sign her works with her initials, to prevent being labeled as feminine.

Elaine de Kooning, Fairfield Porter, 1954, oil on canvas

So a little about Elaine de Kooning's art career: As a figurative artist, de Kooning often painted portraits. Her subjects were mainly fellow artists from poets to choreographers, however she did paint John F. Kennedy as well. In fact, Elaine de Kooning kept painting JFK and made an entire series of portraits of him, one of which is in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C. "Portraiture always fascinated me because I love the particular gesture of a particular expression or stance... Working on the figure, I wanted paint to sweep through as feelings sweep through..." You can tell in her work as well that there is a lot of color and heavy influence from other abstract expressionist artists at this time including her husband Willem.

Elaine de Kooning, Thomas B. Hess, 1956, oil on canvas

Elaine de Kooning in her Manhattan studio in 1964. She is with her John F. Kennedy series of paintings

Later in her life Elaine de Kooning was inspired by paleolithic cave paintings of Lascaux in France and Altamira in Spain. Which really shows her knowledge of color, movement, and line through abstract representative imagery.

Elaine de Kooning, Bull, 1958, oil on canvas, New York University Art Collection

Besides being a painter, Elaine de Kooning was also a writer and wrote from Art News magazine, writing many articles about famous artists. She also taught in many colleges later on in her life. Truly an intelligent and iconic female artist, Elaine de Kooning sadly gets overshadowed by her husband Willem de Kooning. But her work is very crucial to the Abstract Expressionist movement and Art History and should not be ignored.

DETERMINING DAILY RITUALS

I recently got the book “Daily Rituals” by Mason Currey. I thought this book would not only being just a fun and easy read but also hopefully make me want to create. I was right. Now, this isn’t going to be a review (but I could do that in another post if you wanted) but more of a something-sparked-in-my-mind-now-I’m-going-to-blog-about-it thing. This book is jam packed with artists and philosophers and writers who were successful in one way or another. Each little section about a creator has a mini bio (if you could call it that) and their daily schedule or habits. Now don’t think I’m shamelessly promoting this book. I’m not getting anything out of promoting it besides the fact that I enjoy it and find it interesting.

Okay so moving on,

My schedule as of right now, like most students, is based around my classes, internship and work study. I don’t exactly have a set plan everyday besides get what needs to be done, well, done. Now in comparison to most situations where people go off to their desk job and work and go to lunch and work and go home and maybe draw or paint, this book shows how the creative get the most from their days. Let’s compare:

One of the artists mentioned in this book is Francis Bacon. Now, Bacon’s days included “eating multiple rich meals a day, drinking tremendous quantities of alcohol, taking whatever stimulants were handy, and generally staying out later and partying harder than his contemporaries.” At this point some of you are probably thinking he could’ve done so much more and spent his time more wisely. Well, the book continues “Painting came first. Despite his late nights, Bacon always woke at the first light of day and worked for several hours…” His lifestyle is shown through his interesting portrayal of figures with multiple angles shown. While his style is almost a mix between Salvador Dali and Cubism, Bacon’s slur yet rich lifestyle is definitely shown in his compositions. Here's an example of one of his pieces "Figure in Movement"

Francis Bacon, Figure in Movement, 1976, oil on canvas, 198x147.5 cm, private collection

(http://www.francis-bacon.com/paintings/?c=76-77)

Another artist mentioned in this book is Willem de Kooning. Now let’s try to work backwards trying to guess his lifestyle from his style of painting. Here is one of Willem de Kooning’s paintings “Pink Angels”

Willem de Kooning, Pink Angels, 1945, oil and charcoal on canvas, 132.1x101.6 cm, Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation, L.A. © 2011 The Willem de Kooning Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

(http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/1149)

There is definitely lines of structure but yet the gestures are mainly fluid. There are areas where Kooning has clearly worked over many times and there are moments of frustration. How could his lifestyle compliment his painting?

Well, Willem de Kooning, according to Mason Currey, his days were pretty simple. “He generally rose around 10:00 or 11:00, drank several strong cups of coffee, and painted all day and into the night, breaking only for dinner and the occasional visitor.”  No crazy partying like Bacon, but then again, there are few people who did party like Francis Bacon and still manage to lead a successful career.

In any case, reading these rituals of successful creators really is inspiring and makes me realize that you don’t need to have a set type of lifestyle just because of your career path. You just need to figure out when you are the most productive and creative and work around it. Because we all know what is most important in the art world: continuing to produce works.