Artist

Willem de Kooning

born Rotterdam, Netherlands 1904-died East Hampton, NY 1997
Media - portrait_image_114398.jpg - 90459
Willem de Kooning, 1946. Photograph by Harry Bowden. Courtesy Harry Bowden papers, 1922-1972, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Also known as
  • Willem De Kooning
Born
Rotterdam, Netherlands
Died
East Hampton, New York, United States
Active in
  • New York, New York, United States
Biography

Born in Holland, moved to the United States in 1924. Abstract Expressionist painter, known for his disturbing pictures of women, who became one of the dominant American artists of the 1950s.

Charles Sullivan, ed American Beauties: Women in Art and Literature (New York: Henry N. Abrams, Inc., in association with National Museum of American Art, 1993)

Works by this artist (1036 items)

William H. Johnson, Young Pastry Cook, ca. 1928-1930, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Harmon Foundation, 1967.59.693
Young Pastry Cook
Dateca. 1928-1930
oil on canvas
On view
William H. Johnson, Portrait of a Man, ca. 1935-1938, oil on burlap, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Harmon Foundation, 1967.59.814
Portrait of a Man
Dateca. 1935-1938
oil on burlap
On view
William H. Johnson, Tehran Conference, ca. 1945, oil on plywood, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Harmon Foundation, 1967.59.647
Tehran Conference
Dateca. 1945
oil on plywood
On view
William H. Johnson, Jim, 1930, oil on canvas, mounted on masonite, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Harmon Foundation, 1967.59.748
Jim
Date1930
oil on canvas, mounted on masonite
On view

Exhibitions

Media - 1995.27 - SAAM-1995.27_1 - 52089
Graphic Masters II: Highlights from the Smithsonian American Art Museum
June 18, 2009January 10, 2010
Graphic Masters II: Highlights from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the second in a series of special installations, celebrates the extraordinary variety and accomplishment of American artists' works on paper.
Media - 1996.104.55 - SAAM-1996.104.55_1 - 55872
Abstract Drawings
June 14, 2012January 6, 2013
Abstract Drawings presents a selection of forty-six works on paper from the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s permanent collection that are rarely on public display.

Related Books

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Graphic Masters: Highlights from the Smithsonian American Art Museum
Graphic Masters celebrates the extraordinary variety and accomplishment of American artists’ works on paper. Exceptional watercolors, pastels, and drawings from the 1860s through the 1990s reveal the central importance of works on paper for American artists, both as studies for creations in other media and as finished works of art. Traditionally a more intimate form of expression than painting or sculpture, drawings often reveal greater spontaneity and experimentation. Even as works on paper become larger and more finished, competing in scale with easel paintings, they retain a sense of the artist’s hand, the immediacy of a thought made visible.