Elaine de Kooning
Taurus XII , 1973
In 1958, she travelled to Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, where she saw her first bullfight. The experience …
Elaine de Kooning was a prolific and versatile painter, writer, and teacher. Though she was closely associated with the New York School and Abstract Expressionism, de Kooning eschewed developing a singular style and instead painted in a range of modes from realism to abstraction. “Style is something I’ve always tried to avoid. I’m more interested in character,” she said. The subjects in her work also varied, including mythology, landscapes, and portraiture; one of her later bodies of work was inspired by the cave paintings in Lascaux. She studied widely with different artists including Milton Resnick, Stuart Davis, and Willem de Kooning, the latter of whom she married in 1943. De Kooning also spent time at Black Mountain College, where she designed a stage set for Merce Cunningham and John Cage.
In 1958, she travelled to Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, where she saw her first bullfight. The experience inspired a series of bull paintings and prints on horizontal canvases. Despite her devotion to the Abstract Expressionism movement, she retained her interest in figuration and ironically much of her best-known work, such …
Elaine de Kooning was a prolific and versatile painter, writer, and teacher. Though she was closely associated with the New York School and Abstract Expressionism, de Kooning eschewed developing a singular style and instead painted in a range of modes from realism to abstraction. “Style is something I’ve always tried to avoid. I’m more interested in character,” she said. The subjects in her work also varied, including mythology, landscapes, and portraiture; one of her later bodies of work was inspired by the cave paintings in Lascaux. She studied widely with different artists including Milton Resnick, Stuart Davis, and Willem de Kooning, the latter of whom she married in 1943. De Kooning also spent time at Black Mountain College, where she designed a stage set for Merce Cunningham and John Cage.
