De Kooning

Author: He Zhengguang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-05-01
Features: De Kooning's painting career seemed to have no inherent connection with his Dutch origins. In fact, he was always pained by Rembrandt's classical realistic painting. This stubborn Dutchman, who had been a sailor, has always prided himself on being in opposition to traditional art since the moment he started painting. He once said, "It is our habitual attitudes and numb minds, which inherit the solemnity and sanctity of art, that have stifled geniuses like Van Gogh." The implication is that one, he was a genius; and two, he was an anti-traditional, anti-normative artistic genius. De Kooning is a master of American Abstract Expressionism. Throughout his creative career, the human figure has been a continuous and focused theme. The deconstruction and reconstruction of the human form, or the expression between the human and the abstract, reveal De Kooning's superior shaping ability. His relentless pursuit of life's satisfaction drives him to explore various forms of expression. Painting is his tool for "self-understanding."