A pioneer of Abstract Expressionism, Willem de Kooning worked in both abstract and figurative modes throughout his career. His groundbreaking Women paintings of 1950-1955 famously explore the intersection of vigorous gesture painting and the representation of the female body. Following his successful first one-man show of black and white paintings at the Charles Egan Gallery in 1948, de Kooning turned his attention to the female nude in the early 1950s. The subject was rich with art historical associations from ancient fertility Venus statues to Picasso’s Cubist masterpieces. Aggressive, imposing, and even grotesque, the Women paintings feature intensely colored brushwork and archaic broad-shouldered figures. The formidable women possess enlarged breasts, wide eyes, and toothy smiles that reference 1950s magazine advertisements. Simultaneously iconic and demonic, de Kooning’s women reflect mid-century issues of femininity, evoking stereotypes of the femme fatale and the devouring mother.



The expressive violence of the 1950’s slowly gave way to a more lyrical abstracted style, seen in the gestural curves and muted palette of this work “Paper Tigress.” He oscillated between figural and abstracted works until the 1960’s, during which “Paper Tigress” was completed in 1964, when he merged both approaches for good. The loose brushworks, resembling a sketch, characterize de Kooning’s drawing-based approach to painting. In 1975, he remarked, “I draw while painting, and I don’t know the difference between painting and drawing.” (1)



Willem de Kooning was born in Rotterdam, Holland in 1904. He received commercial and fine art training in his native country before sailing as a stowaway to America in 1926, where he soon made connections in the New York art world. He developed a close friendship with Arshile Gorky, who had a decisive stylistic influence on de Kooning, and in 1929 he met John D. Graham, who became an early champion of de Kooning’s work. Now considered one of the greatest figures of Abstract Expressionism, de Kooning paved the way for the next generation postwar artists. 



1. Susan F. Lake, “Methods and Materials: Woman, Sag Harbor,” in ed. John Elderfield De Kooning: A Retrospective. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2012, p. 369-370.