An energetic and generous person, Elaine Dekooning He expanded the scope of what is normally considered Abstract Expressionism with his dynamic and sensitively painted portraits of friends, athletes, and even a president of the U.S.
She was a prolific artist, art critic, portrait painter, and teacher during the height of the era of abstract expressionism and much beyond.
Blending abstraction and representation in much of her work, de Kooning drew inspiration not only from those around her, but also from bullfighting, sculpture, and paintings.
Elaine deKooning.
Although her early career was overshadowed by that of her husband, Willem deKooning, the artistic variety from Elaine, her vast knowledge of the media and her influence on other artists were undeniable. So Elaine's work continues to receive increasing critical attention and finds her place among her peers in the New York School.
Elaine Dekooning was born as Elaine Marie Catherine Fried in 1918. She was the first of four children and they lived in the neighborhood Brooklyn Sheepshead Bay. Elaine's younger sister, Marjorie, once recalled that her mother was not the most attentive and loving mother, but she instilled in her children a love of the arts, often taking them to the Metropolitan Art Museum and to the shows of Broadway, and decorating their walls with art reproductions.
Marie was an eccentric and highly intelligent woman, but in the late 1920s, a neighbor reported Marie to the police for neglecting her children, and when the police arrived at Fried's home, Marie had to be physically forced to leave the premises. She was committed to the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens Village for a year, during which time the children's primary caretaker was her housekeeper.
During this time of distress, Elaine de Kooning became a surrogate mother to her younger siblings.
In 1932, de Kooning began attending high school Erasmus Hall, where he excelled in just about everything, including sports and academia. Four years later, he enrolled in Hunter College in Manhattan, but he dropped out after only a few weeks of classes.
After leaving Hunter, de Kooning enrolled in classes at the Leonardo da Vinci School of Art, where the artists employed by the Works Progress Administration financed by the New Deal They worked as teachers. It was at the da Vinci School where he met the artist robert jonas, whom he dated briefly and remained close throughout his life.
In the fall of 1938, robert jonas introduced him to the Dutch émigré Willem (Bill) de Kooning, 34, but there is little evidence to suggest a romantic connection in their initial meeting.
Shortly after her presentation, a friend of de Kooning's took her to Willem's studio. Later in her life, Elaine recalled, "It was the cleanest place I've ever seen. It had gray painted floors, white walls, a table... an easel, a fantastically good phonograph that cost $800 when he only made $22 a week, and a painting of a man at the easel".
Shortly after they met, Willem offered to give Elaine drawing lessons, to which she accepted. In late 1938 de Kooning finally sold his first work, a watercolor, for $10.
Photographer rudy burkhardt, whom Elaine met through Bill, later recalled that "Bill was incredibly in love with her, but she didn't treat him very well at first. In 1939, a year after the two artists met, Elaine moved to the Bill's study in West 22nd St. On December 9, 1943, Elaine and Bill were married in a small, low-key ceremony at City Hall.
Although they were never divorced, the two were effectively separated and grew up apart.
Working and teaching out of the shadow of her more famous husband, de Kooning gained recognition as one of the leading artists of United States. In 1962, she received a commission from the Casa Blanca to paint the president's portrait John F. Kennedy, an honor not usually bestowed on an artist associated with the bohemian avant-garde.
After a few weeks of drawing the president while he was in Palm Beach, FloridaIn late 1962, De Kooning spent most of 1963 fine-tuning portraiture, collecting hundreds of Kennedy photographs and drawing sketches by hand.
After the assassination of President Kennedy, de Kooning stopped painting for a year and took a teaching position at the University of California. Beginning in the mid-1960s, de Kooning became more prolific as a teacher than ever, teaching at universities and colleges across the country.
Having been diagnosed with lung cancer years earlier, in 1987 de Kooning underwent an operation to remove one of her lungs. Her health continued to deteriorate and she died on February 1, 1988.
Her large, colorful, gestural works from the 1960s show her as a skilled abstract expressionist, and her sensitive and dynamic portraits of friends, athletes, and strangers broaden the understanding of what abstract expressionism can be.
But beyond his painting, de Kooning's astute and rigorous analyzes of painting in the 1940s and 1950s helped shape what we know of Abstract Expressionism as a whole.
Always generous with her time, and sometimes even money, her impact on her students and friends was considerable.