For the last week, my body and mind have been staging a coup, holding both my brush and pen hostage. Damn the torpedoes, I'll give it a shot anyway. For a few weeks now I've wanted to dive into this subject which I had briefly touched on before. Several weeks ago, I had written a piece about female artists that have charged my battery.
I've decided to take a more comprehensive approach to the subject. Henry the 8th had 6 wives, a dangerous proposition as heads will roll. Not so with these wives. With spit and dogged determination, they threw themselves into their work despite the boy's club that was art. For 6 weeks I'll be writing one article about each of the 6 artists that I've chosen.
Elaine De Kooning took a different approach to her relationship with all the other abstract expressionist. She embraced the boys' club and dove right in. Drinking at The Cedar Tavern, Greenwich Village NYC. She joined into the often contentious arguments about art with the likes of Jackson Pollock and Franz Kline. At the same time she was, like the other abstract expressionist wives, a staunch supporter of her husband's work, that being Willem De Kooning.
When she met Willem, she had already been looking at, and enjoying his work, so she moved in with him. He was teaching her to draw and paint, often tearing her work in a rage. He was often very critical of her work. I believe this control mechanism was common among the artists towards their wives of the day. Having that strict control would ensure that their wives would know their place. Dekooning et al would certainly not want their work to succeed. There was only room for one successful artist in the house, yet she persisted.
They were heavy drinkers and had an open marriage. To Elaine's benefit, their imminent separation gave her the independence her work needed.
Her work was vibrant, bringing both her abstracts and her figure work alive. Painting a portrait of JFK brought a great deal of attention to her work. Even when she painted portraits, abstraction stood out.
The relationship with Willem returned to being as it was before. The difference being that the New York scene embraced her. Control was no longer an issue. She had proven to him that her work could stand alone.
Her abstracts are bold, with dynamic movement, the colours are brash emphasizing the speed suggested by the action of each piece.
On top of being the new darling of NYC's art world, although a very feisty one, she also established herself as an art critic, having written dozens of articles for Artnews Magazine. Other successful pursuits included teaching at several universities across the US., and wrote two books about abstract expressionism. Several public and private collections represent Elaine's work. All of this accomplished in her life of 70 years.
Raging Bull Elaine De Kooning 1959