Fallen Angels

Throughout his career, a large portion of de Kooning's artistic production was represented by works on paper (whether as studies, sections of larger works, works of art in their own right). These works on paper played a distinct part in his creative process, as he would draw to resolve an issue or problem, identify a line or figure, rework it, apply it to a canvas, and find a new opening or a solution. At the time Fallen Angels was created, de Kooning was working on the series of women painted on wooden doors, and had started the Clamdigger series. Fallen Angels, however, is distinct from many of the women drawings of the 1950s and 1960s, softer in line and more relaxed in style, and set in the suggested landscape of the skies. The drawing is imbued with a watery feel, as a wash disrupts the charcoal, and softens the lines even further. The line-up of falling or fallen angels includes breasts, wings, legs, knees and thighs, a face, eyes. Pathos and turmoil is achieved through the finish of the drawing rather than compositional elements. Without the mass of colors or reworking spent on many of the women and abstract paintings, de Kooning achieves a synthetic coalescence of form and abstraction in this work.