Willem De Kooning Seated Woman 1940

It is a rigorously stylized depiction of a woman with a broad shouldered torso inclining backwards and firm foreshortened arms.

Willem de kooning seated woman 1940. Seated woman 2 was created in 1940 by willem de kooning in abstract expressionism style. The monumental bronze sculpture seated woman by willem de kooning is on a stone podium next to the large fountain on hofplein. This seated figure which belongs to de kooning s first series of women paintings demonstrates his interest in the human form. While his younger contemporary jackson pollock 1912 56 focused on the wholly abstract style of action painting de kooning specialized in distorted gestural painting of which seated woman is an early prototype.

Oil and charcoal on masonite the philadelphia museum of art. The lower body is turned slightly to the right while the legs are crossed over each other. Around this time elaine fried they were not yet married often modeled for de kooning one can see a resemblance of her in the auburn colored hair. In the 1940s de kooning with his friend the artist arshile gorky frequented the metropolitan museum to study portraits by nineteenth century french artist jean auguste dominique ingres.

Ink on paper 14 3 8 x 11 inches. Seated figure classic male. Began as a study for a commissioned portrait that the artist never completed the portrait served as a vehicle for de kooning to explore his ongoing interest in amalgamating figurative subjects with the pictorial concerns of abstraction. The woman wearing a low cut yellow dress sits on a chair with one leg crossed over the other.

Seated woman c 1940 seated woman evolved out of a commission for a portrait. Coming on the heels of a series of paintings of seated men seated woman c 1940 can be seen as a companion piece and was de kooning s first major painting of a woman a subject to which he would continuously return over the decades. Bronze 113 x 147 x 94 inches. The foundation fosters the study and appreciation of willem de kooning s life and work through research exhibitions and educational programs.

Willem de kooning was one of the most influential members of the new york school of american abstract expressionism late 1940s 1950s. This composition is an early work from willem de kooning s long sequence of paintings of women that culminated in one of the most aggressive revisions of the female figure in the history of art. Began as a study for a commissioned portrait that the artist never completed the portrait served as a vehicle for de kooning to explore his ongoing interest in amalgamating figurative subjects with the pictorial concerns of abstraction.