94

Willem de Kooning 1904-1997 US Mixed Media Nude

Currency:USD Category:Antiques Start Price:500.00 USD Estimated At:5,000.00 - 8,000.00 USD
Willem de Kooning 1904-1997 US Mixed Media Nude
ABSENTEE-ONLY BIDDING AVAILABLE. HIGHEST BIDS WILL BE TAKEN TO LIVE AUCTION FLOOR.

888 Auctions endeavors to accurately describe the items being sold, but all property offered for sale is strictly as is, where is, and with all faults. All representations or statements made by 888 Auctions and its representatives, or in the catalogue or other publication or report, as to the correctness of description, genuineness, attribution, provenance, or period of the Lot, are statements of opinion only.
Mixed media on paper, nude. Signed and attr. Willem de Kooning (Dutch, American, 1904-1997, Rotterdam, Netherlands, based in New York and East Hampton, New York) on the lower left and on verso. 10.8 x 7.8 inch (27.5 x 19.9 cm). A first-generation Abstract Expressionist, Willem de Kooning is one of the most important artists of the 20th century. In 1950s New York, when painters like Jackson Pollock and Franz Kline were moving away from representational imagery toward pure abstraction, de Kooning maintained a commitment to the figurative tradition, developing a signature style that fused vivid color and aggressive paint handling with deconstructed images of the female form - a then-controversial body of works that has become known as his “Women” paintings. “Flesh was the reason oil paint was invented,” he famously said. Influenced by Arshile Gorky and Pablo Picasso, de Kooning was often thought to have blended Cubism, Expressionism, and Surrealism in his signature style, paving the way for generations of gestural figurative painters like Cecily Brown. Following his “Women” series, de Kooning pursued non-objective lyrical abstraction until his death in 1997. PROVENANCE: Private American collection