De Kooning at MoMA
http://www.thirteen.org/sundayarts/blog/museums/de-kooning-at-moma/1701/
Excavation, 1950, oil and enamel on canvas, 81x100". The Art Institute of Chicago. Mr. and Mrs. Frank G. Logan Purchase Prize Fund; restricted gifts of Edgar J. Kaufmann, Jr., and Mr. and Mrs. Noah Goldowsky, Jr. (Click to Enlarge)
Willem de Kooning (1904—97) is routinely portrayed as an “artist’s artist,” perhaps the paramount painter among a generation of geniuses. By simply looking at his most iconic “Woman” series, I’ve never fully understood why. But a pass through MoMA’s comprehensive exhibition, De Kooning: A Retrospective, curated by John Elderfield and on view through January 9, pretty much elucidates why he’s considered so great.
De Kooning reinvented his painting style many times along the way, but the amazing thing is, if he had stopped evolving prior to his golden “Woman” period (basically beginning in the late 1940s through the early 1950s), he might still be considered atop his generation. One of the most striking canvases at MoMA is Excavation (1950), with its jigsaw puzzle composition that hovers between pure abstraction and representation; the palette, dominantly cream colored but with shots of color indicating a volatile inner life; and the sheer technical prowess of the painting, all combining into a giant visual symphony that gives Pollock’s great One a run for its money. A preceding series of primarily black compositions with white lines shows the value of such an exercise; each line is forced to have true meaning in the overall context, like a solo vocal line.
