de Kooning: A Retrospective
Painting | Willem de Kooning
de Kooning 101
It is the business of retrospectives to be comprehensive and the Willem de Kooning show at MoMA certainly is. But when an artist has a process as sweeping as de Kooning's, volume can be self-neutralizing, and the experimentation you are there for begins to appear untamed. His practice is wild enough in discreet doses. The color harmonies are seismic. He has a restless sense of scale. His Women seem as controversial as the day they were painted. And by the third gallery you feel you've already caught a glimpse of every thought that ever popped into de Kooning's head. Still, there are moments of calm where the canvases have clear points of entry, or the artist's arm is so apparent the pictures become humane. And there's no need to fear exiting the show uncertain of what you've witnessed. The galleries build to a realized crescendo, and the curator deposits you into a meditation chamber that features the rarely seen Labyrinth, a canvas so sublimely integrated it might convert you to abstractionism if you're not quite there yet.
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Culture Review
Attendant 5
Brice Marden -
Culture Review
Les Demoiselles d'Avignon
Pablo Picasso -
Culture Review
Portrait of Chess Players
Marcel Duchamp -
Culture Review
Erased De Kooning Drawing
Robert Rauschenberg
