Essay by Sneha Konda, Class of 2007

Willem de Kooning was one of the most influential Abstract Expressionist artists of the twentieth century. Abstract Expressionism, and particularly action painting, was a movement in which the artist painted rapidly and forcefully on large canvases in an effort to intuitively express feelings and emotions. To an Abstract Expressionist, spontaneity was thought to draw out the creativity from the artist's subconscious. In the 1930s, de Kooning's art began to develop a distinct appearance. He started out painting letters on canvases, recreating and shifting them into gestured statements as his final product (Hess 23).

De Kooning extended his process-oriented approach in his most famous works representing the abstract figurative paintings of women. Through his Woman series, he explored the abstract figure in space while experimenting with shapes and colors. His many depictions of women were controversial because the figures were distorted and looked grotesque.

Untitled is a 1980 color lithograph that might be an abstract depiction of a woman's figure in a landscape scene. The woman looks to be in profile with an American flag behind her and landscape beside her. De Kooning defined his own concept of space by the way he arranged the landscape and the figure. Although this is a lithograph, the bright colors and thick, expressive brushstrokes make the piece look three-dimensional and reveal a sense of movement similar to his action paintings. At the top of the image, the flowing blue lines and the yellow might represent the sky and the sun, while the brown and green near the bottom suggest land. The curving red brushstrokes near the face hint at a flag. Although the loose swabs of paint look as if they were done in a hurry and suggest spontaneity, the artist actually placed his gestured strokes with care.

Another technique that de Kooning explored was closing his eyes while painting so he could concentrate inwardly to intensify his feelings and "to disconnect perception from preconception" (Butler 169). This distanced him from imposing proper proportions and conventional form, which made his figures more keenly felt and accurately expressionistic.