Untitled.
Title |
Untitled. |
Creator |
De Kooning, Willem (American painter and sculptor, 1904-1997) |
Date |
1948-1949 |
Cultural Context |
American North American |
Style/Period |
Abstract Expressionist Abstract (fine arts style) Action painting Modern (styles and periods) |
Subject |
Abstract paintings |
Description |
"In de Kooning's black canvases the elimination of color was conditioned as much by financial constraints as by the need to simplify pictorial problems in the spirit of Analytic Cubism. The deliberately artless use of shiny enamel housepaints (a strategy also adopted by [Jackson] Pollock at this time) evokes the wet night-time sidewalks of New York City, whilst disembodied lines, evocative of graffiti and other forms of signage, skid, loop, and zigzag across the canvas like reckless city drivers." (Caption, p.33); "De Kooning came closest to abstraction in the sequence of black-and-white canvases of 1947-9, where pictorial planes lock together to produce an 'all-over' pictorial field analogous to Pollock's contemporary productions. However, reference to body parts, buildings, and landscape, claustrophobically compacted together in a fierce collision of energies, can still be discerned." (Excerpt, p.33) |
Material |
Enamel and oil on paper on composition board Enamel paint House paint Oil paint (pigmented coating) Paint Composition board Boards (flat objects) Paper (fiber product) |
Measurements |
94.8 x 127 cm |
Technique |
Painting (image-making) Oil painting (technique) |
Work Type |
Paintings Abstract paintings Abstract works Oil paintings |
Repository |
Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, Illinois) |
Source |
Hopkins, David. After Modern Art: 1945-2000. Oxford History of Art. Oxford; New York: Oxford UP, 2000. (p.33, fig.16) |
Rights |
Photograph reproduced in Hopkins courtesy: Art Institute of Chicago, Mary and Earle Ludgin Collection. © ARS, NY, and DACS, London, 2000. (1981.260) |
Digital Publisher |
University of Louisville Department of Fine Arts/Allen R. Hite Art Institute Visual Resources Center |
Format |
image/jpeg |
Digital File Name |
VRC 827-12.jpg |
Rating |
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