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Lot Essay
“I get freer. I feel I am getting more myself in the sense of I have all my forces. I hope so, anyhow. I have this sort of feeling that I am all there now and, you know, it’s not even thinking in terms of one’s limitations, because they have to come naturally. I think whatever you have, you can do wonders with it if you accept them…I am more convinced, you know, of picking up the paint and the brush and drumming it out.” (W. De Kooning, 1960 in David Sylvester, Interviews with American Artists, New Haven Yale University Press, 2001, p. 56)
With its inimitable brushwork and robust palette, Willem de Kooning’s French Wire unites elements of both figuration and abstraction. The artist himself once remarked that fesh was the reason oil paint was invented, and within the wide and free sweeps of paint that the artist traces across the paintings newsprint support surface emerge liquid, flowing impressions of the mouth, eyes, arms, and legs of a standing nude. The predominant color is white mixed with red and orange, which define the woman occupying the center of the composition, while deeper red and orange tonalities form the eyes and mouth. Distinct from, and in contrast to the figures that de Kooning accomplished in the 1950s which were bounded by dark charcoal or black paint lines, in the present work it is color and brushwork themselves that define the form. Pinks, yellows, greens, and black develop the shape of the woman and the background, while columns of text from the newsprint foundation show through at the peripheries of the painted surface.
French Wire was painted during the prolific years shortly after de Kooning had moved permanently from New York City to Springs, Long Island. De Kooning had recently turned sixty, and he saw this period as a time of new beginnings, one where he could bring together everything that he had previously learned, absorbing decades worth of ideas, and making a fresh start. “That de Kooning chose to reject the abstract landscapes which had occupied him in the city during the late 1950’s and early 60’s just at the moment he moved to the country may seem unusual. But this was merely one change in direction in a complicated artistic evolution marked by numerous transitions from figurative to abstract… Indeed, the coexistence of these two seemingly contradictory poles in his work…has raised many questions about…his role as an abstract artist. De Kooning has never claimed to be an abstract artist and, indeed, he has never entirely rejected the figure. In fact, his figurative and abstract styles sometimes evolve concurrently, sometimes in successive stages” (D. Waldman, Willem de Kooning in East Hampton exh. cat. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1978, p. 11).
During this period de Kooning was exploring and extending his style, producing works that were highly fluid in appearance. “The figure is nothing unless you twist it around like a strange miracle,” he said. Movement and composition are inseparable in these works. Color, line, and motion twist and flow together, offering an exceptional sensory experience for the viewer. Without a clear distinction between human form and ground, the figure seems to move forward and retreat, coalescing, then blending with the background. The artist’s extraordinary handling of paint produces an image that swirls between figuration and abstraction, flowing from one painterly approach to another in tandem with the liquid quality of the paint itself. The pigments themselves define the contours of the woman, lusciously applied daubs, streaks, smears and splotches of paint, with their own capacity to engage the viewer, separate from the work they do to produce the human form.
In French Wire, both the application of the paint and the portrayal of the figure are characterized by a distinct free flowing quality that is prototypical de Kooning. Working in his Springs studio, de Kooning painted a number of woman figures. These later career works were characterized by stunning invention, reintroducing figuration to contemporary art practice. “The East Hampton paintings of the 1960s and ‘70s demonstrate that de Kooning…in the rare tradition of such masters as Monet and Matisse, has produced a great and innovatory late body of work. In the late 1950s he had established once and for all that the female form was as relevant to contemporary art as pure abstract subject matter. Now he continued to experiment with the female figure” (D. Waldman, Willem de Kooning in East Hampton exh. cat. Guggenheim Museum, New York, p. 21).
De Kooning’s florid depictions of women on newsprint are among some of the most iconic works of the post-war period. The paint’s physicality and the way in which it has been applied, the color and the gestural sweeps and play of this tactile and, in de Kooning’s hand, seemingly infinitely pliable medium, powerfully evoke the artist’s own sensual and erotically-charged response to women, their bodies, their skin and their features. The gestural energy of this work marks it out as one of his more high-octane representations and as such, French Wire is prompted by a wry and benevolent sense of warmth and affection.
With its inimitable brushwork and robust palette, Willem de Kooning’s French Wire unites elements of both figuration and abstraction. The artist himself once remarked that fesh was the reason oil paint was invented, and within the wide and free sweeps of paint that the artist traces across the paintings newsprint support surface emerge liquid, flowing impressions of the mouth, eyes, arms, and legs of a standing nude. The predominant color is white mixed with red and orange, which define the woman occupying the center of the composition, while deeper red and orange tonalities form the eyes and mouth. Distinct from, and in contrast to the figures that de Kooning accomplished in the 1950s which were bounded by dark charcoal or black paint lines, in the present work it is color and brushwork themselves that define the form. Pinks, yellows, greens, and black develop the shape of the woman and the background, while columns of text from the newsprint foundation show through at the peripheries of the painted surface.
French Wire was painted during the prolific years shortly after de Kooning had moved permanently from New York City to Springs, Long Island. De Kooning had recently turned sixty, and he saw this period as a time of new beginnings, one where he could bring together everything that he had previously learned, absorbing decades worth of ideas, and making a fresh start. “That de Kooning chose to reject the abstract landscapes which had occupied him in the city during the late 1950’s and early 60’s just at the moment he moved to the country may seem unusual. But this was merely one change in direction in a complicated artistic evolution marked by numerous transitions from figurative to abstract… Indeed, the coexistence of these two seemingly contradictory poles in his work…has raised many questions about…his role as an abstract artist. De Kooning has never claimed to be an abstract artist and, indeed, he has never entirely rejected the figure. In fact, his figurative and abstract styles sometimes evolve concurrently, sometimes in successive stages” (D. Waldman, Willem de Kooning in East Hampton exh. cat. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1978, p. 11).
During this period de Kooning was exploring and extending his style, producing works that were highly fluid in appearance. “The figure is nothing unless you twist it around like a strange miracle,” he said. Movement and composition are inseparable in these works. Color, line, and motion twist and flow together, offering an exceptional sensory experience for the viewer. Without a clear distinction between human form and ground, the figure seems to move forward and retreat, coalescing, then blending with the background. The artist’s extraordinary handling of paint produces an image that swirls between figuration and abstraction, flowing from one painterly approach to another in tandem with the liquid quality of the paint itself. The pigments themselves define the contours of the woman, lusciously applied daubs, streaks, smears and splotches of paint, with their own capacity to engage the viewer, separate from the work they do to produce the human form.
In French Wire, both the application of the paint and the portrayal of the figure are characterized by a distinct free flowing quality that is prototypical de Kooning. Working in his Springs studio, de Kooning painted a number of woman figures. These later career works were characterized by stunning invention, reintroducing figuration to contemporary art practice. “The East Hampton paintings of the 1960s and ‘70s demonstrate that de Kooning…in the rare tradition of such masters as Monet and Matisse, has produced a great and innovatory late body of work. In the late 1950s he had established once and for all that the female form was as relevant to contemporary art as pure abstract subject matter. Now he continued to experiment with the female figure” (D. Waldman, Willem de Kooning in East Hampton exh. cat. Guggenheim Museum, New York, p. 21).
De Kooning’s florid depictions of women on newsprint are among some of the most iconic works of the post-war period. The paint’s physicality and the way in which it has been applied, the color and the gestural sweeps and play of this tactile and, in de Kooning’s hand, seemingly infinitely pliable medium, powerfully evoke the artist’s own sensual and erotically-charged response to women, their bodies, their skin and their features. The gestural energy of this work marks it out as one of his more high-octane representations and as such, French Wire is prompted by a wry and benevolent sense of warmth and affection.