Elaine de Kooning

Elaine de Kooning
Birth name	Elaine Marie Fried
Born	(1918-03-12)March 12, 1918/1920 Brooklyn, New York
Died	February 1, 1989(1989-02-01) (aged 68-70) Southampton, New York
Nationality	American
Field	Painting
Movement	New York Figurative Expressionism, Abstract Expressionism
Influenced by	Willem de Kooning, Lee Krasner, Harold Rosenberg, Mark Rothko, Joan Mitchell, Rudy Burkhardt, Aristidemus Kaldis, Stuart Davis, Robert Jonas, Milton Resnick, Josef Albers

Elaine de Kooning (March 12, 1918/1920 – February 1, 1989) was an Abstract Expressionist, Figurative Expressionist painter in the post-World War II era and editorial associate for Art News magazine. On December 9, 1943, she married artist Willem de Kooning, who was a highly influential artist in the Abstract Expressionism movement.

Early life and education

She was born Elaine Marie Catherine Fried in 1918 (she later gave her birth year as 1920) in Brooklyn, New York. The oldest of four children born to Charles Frank Fried and Mary Ellen O'Brien Fried, she was raised in the Sheepshead Bay section of Brooklyn. Her artistic sensibility was encouraged by her mother, who took her to museums and taught her to draw what she saw. After graduating from Erasmus Hall High School, then brief studies at Hunter College in New York City, in 1937 she attended the Leonardo da Vinci Art School, Hoboken, New Jersey. In 1938 she went on to study at the American Artists School in New York City.

She stated:

A painting to me is primarily a verb, not a noun, an event first and only secondarily an image.

Death

Elaine de Kooning died on February 1, 1989, in Southampton, New York, a year after having a lung removed due to lung cancer. Willem de Kooning, who was never officially diagnosed with Alzheimer's but nonetheless reported to have had the disease, was told in the summer of 1989 that his wife had died.

Teaching positions

• 1959: University of New Mexico;
• 1960: The Pennsylvania State University;
• 1963-64: University of California, Davis, California;
• 1967: Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut;
• 1968: Pratt Institute;
• 1968-70: Carnegie-Mellon University;
• 1971-72: University of Pennsylvania;
• 1971: Wagner College;
• 1974: New York Studio School, Paris;
• 1974-75: Parsons School of Design, NYC;
• 1976-79: University of Georgia.

Selected solo exhibitions

• 1952, 1954, 1956: Stable Gallery, NYC;
• 1957: Tibor de Nagy Gallery, NYC;
• 1959: Lyman Allyn Art Museum, New London, Connecticut;
• 1960: Ellison Gallery, Fort Worth, Texas;
• 1960, 1963, 1965, 1975: Graham Gallery, NYC;
• 1964: “25 Portraits of J.F.K.”, Peale House Gallery, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania;
• 1979: “Bacchus, Works on Paper”, Lauren Rogers Museum of Art and Library, Laurel, Mississippi;
• 1982, 86: Gruenebaum Gallery’ NYC;
• 1983: “Elaine de Kooning and the Bacchus Motif”, Arts Club of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois;
• 1984: "Elaine de Kooning: New Paintings", C. Grimaldis Gallery, Baltimore, Maryland;
• 1991: “Black Mountain Paintings from 1948”, Joan T. Washburn Gallery, NYC.

Selected group exhibitions

• 1951, 1953-1957: 9th Street Art Exhibition, the first “New York Painters and Sculptors Annual Exhibition” and subsequent 5 New York Artists’ Annual Exhibitions, Stable Gallery, NYC;
• 1956: “Abstract Expressionism”, circ., by the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota; “Young American Painters”, circ., The Museum of Modern Art, NYC; “Pittsburgh International”, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh;
• 1958: “Action Painting, 1958”, The Dallas Contemporary, Dallas, Texas;
• 1960: “Abstract Expressionists Painting of the Fifties”, The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota;
• 1961: The Whitney Museum of American Art Annuals and Biennials, NYC;
• 1964: “67th Annual American Exhibition: Directions in Contemporary Painting and Sculpture”, The Art Institute of Chicago;
• 1980: “The Fifties: Aspects Painting in New York”, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; "Heads: An Exhibit of Portraits", C. Grimaldis Gallery, Baltimore, Maryland.
• 1990: “East Hampton Avant-Garde, A Salute to the Signa Gallery”, Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, New York.

See also

• Women in art
• American Figurative Expressionism
• New York Figurative Expressionism
• New York School
• 9th Street Art Exhibition
• Abstract Expressionism
• Action painting

Sources

• Grace Glueck; "Elaine de Kooning, Artist and Teacher, Dies at 68", New York Times obituary, February 2, 1989
• Paul Schimmel; Judith E Stein; Newport Harbor Art Museum, The Figurative fifties: New York figurative expressionism (Newport Beach, California: Newport Harbor Art Museum; New York: Rizzoli, 1988); ISBN 0-8478-0942-0, ISBN 978-0-8478-0942-4, ISBN 0-917493-12-5, ISBN 978-0-917493-12-6
• Lee Hall, Elaine and Bill, portrait of a marriage : the lives of Willem and Elaine de Kooning, (New York, New York : HarperCollins Pub., ©1993.) ISBN 0-06-018305-5
• Marika Herskovic, American Abstract and Figurative Expressionism: Style Is Timely Art Is Timeless (New York School Press, 2009); ISBN 978-0-9677994-2-1 pp. 72–75
• Marika Herskovic, American Abstract Expressionism of the 1950s An Illustrated Survey, (New York School Press, 2003); ISBN 0-9677994-1-4; pp. 90–93
• Marika Herskovic, New York School Abstract Expressionists Artists Choice by Artists, (New York School Press, 2000); ISBN 0-9677994-0-6; p.  8, 16, 25, 36, 102-105
• The Spirit of Abstract Expressionism Selected Writings; ISBN 0-8076-1337-1
• Edvard Lieber, Willem de Kooning: Reflections in the Studio, 2000, Harry N. Abrams, Inc.; ISBN 0-8109-4560-6

External link for image reproduction

• Elaine de Kooning, (1920-1989) Image list