Willem de Kooning Nonstop

Cherchez la femme

Krauss Rosalind E.

In the early 1950s, Willem de Kooning's "Woman I" and subsequent paintings established him as a leading member of the abstract expressionist movement. His wildly impacted brushstrokes and heavily encrusted surfaces baffled most critics, who saw de Kooning's monstrous female image as violent, aggressive, and ultimately the product of a misogynistic mind. In the image-rich "Willem de Kooning Nonstop", Rosalind E. Krauss counters this view with a radical rethinking of de Kooning's bold canvases and reveals his true artistic practices. Krauss demonstrates that contrary to popular conceptions of de Kooning as an artist who painted chaotically only to end a piece abruptly, he was in fact constantly reworking the same subject based on a compositional template. This template informed all of his art and included a three-part vertical structure; the projection of his male point of view into the painting or sculpture; and the near-universal inclusion of the female form, which was paired with her re-doubled projection onto his work. Krauss identifies these elements throughout de Kooning's oeuvre, even in his paintings of highways, boats, and landscapes: Woman is always there. A thought-provoking study by one of America's greatest art critics, "Willem de Kooning Nonstop" revolutionizes our understanding of de Kooning and shows us what has always been hiding in plain sight in his work.

About the Author

Rosalind E. Krauss is University Professor at Columbia University, where she was previously the Meyer Schapiro Professor of Modern Art and Theory in the Department of Art History and Archaeology. She is the co-founder of "October" and has written many essays and books. She has also curated many exhibitions at leading museums.

Reviews

"'Willem de Kooning Nonstop' is a master class in close looking, the most visually rigorous treatment available of de Kooning's entire career" – Pamela Lee, author of "New Games: Postmodernism After Contemporary Art"

"This book delivers incomparable visual insights with the calculated speed of de Kooning's brushwork. Krauss homes in on everything vital and raw and rigorous in abstract expressionism and grants the reader de Kooning's ultimate wish: to be inside the painting" – Noam M. Elcott, author of "Artificial Darkness: An Obscure History of Modern Art and Media"

"'Willem de Kooning Nonstop' is written with utter directness and generosity, and testifies on every page to its author's unstoppable engagement with the realities of painting. It is strong above all by reason of Krauss's ability to sense connections – to see Picasso and Matisse and Vermeer and Rubens in de Kooning – and to think (and feel) deeply about the tension between past and present in the artist's best work. Abstract expressionism has rarely been defended with such passion" – T. J. Clark, author of "Picasso and Truth: From Cubism to Guernica"

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