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拍品專文
A deeply sensual and complex work, Untitled is an example of Willem de Kooning’s painterly virtuosity unleashed in a forceful, yet ever-changing fluid way. De Kooning executed the work 1970, by which time he was recognized as one of the greatest living American painters. The present work displays the rich coloration and broad painterly gestures that de Kooning developed over decades of working in oil paint and serves as a monumental example of his mature style.
After relocating to his new studio in East Hampton in 1963, de Kooning turned away from his abstract pastoral landscapes and returned to depictions of the female figure. Oscillating between the figure and landscape throughout his oeuvre, de Kooning used these polarities in a series of pastoral nudes he made during this period. In these works, the figuration and landscape are merged to different degrees in a dialectic between abstraction and figuration. De Kooning’s uninhibited handling of gestural tonality renders the body and nature in some kind of mutual harmony. Working in his studio in the Springs, situated on the eastern end of Long Island, de Kooning was greatly inspired by the luminous landscape that surrounded him.
De Kooning stated, "When I moved into this house, everything seemed self-evident. The space, the light, and the trees—I just accepted it without thinking about it much. Now I look around with new eyes. I think it's all a kind of miracle” (W. de Kooning quoted in H. Rosenberg, "Interview with Willem de Kooning," Art News 71, September 1972). Perhaps the grassy lowlands and bodies of water of the Springs provided a comforting reminder of the aging Dutchman's origins. He spent hours contemplating nature, and one of his favorite pastimes involved bicycling to the beach at Louse Point. He was intrigued by the way colors reflected off the surface of the water and how forms emerged and dissolved without boundaries. Earth, sky, figure and landscape blended their essence without demarcating their contours. As de Kooning explained, "I wanted to get in touch with nature. Not painting scenes from nature, but to get a feeling of that light that was very appealing to me, here particularly. I was always very much interested in water,” (ibid.). The undulating rhythms of brushwork in Untitled recall the oceanic flux that entranced de Kooning. "There is something about being in touch with the sea that makes me feel good, it is the source where most of my painting comes from," de Kooning explained (W. de Kooning, quoted in Willem de Kooning: Paintings, exh. cat., Washington, D.C., p. 198). Nature, which until then had laid relatively fallow in his imagination, resurfaced in these works in an explosive rush. An accumulation of sensations of earth, light, sea and sky became internalized and transfigured into the skin and muscle of paint.
Water also embodied a sort of epiphany to de Kooning in its ability to bring the evanescent sensations of a long life together, conveying the ever-flowing passage of time. The unprecedented liquidity and flow of paint in paintings such as Untitled attest to de Kooning's reveries by bodies of water, absorbing the flickering nuances of sun, atmosphere and foliage and absorbing such fractured images into the realm of experience and memory. Of these abstractions, Bernhard Mendes Burgi states, "The accumulation of sensations between earth and light and water and sky, distilled and detached from anecdotal experience, exploded in a rush of painting. What already applied to the abstract landscapes of the late 1950s and early 1960s became even more conspicuous in the series created between 1975 and 1980. They are not abstractions of the experiences of nature; they are abstract in following an uncurbed energy principle without beginning and end, allowing things to emerge, to rise to the surface in analogy to nature. Everything seems to be floating, flying, lying and falling in these paintings, their energy heightened by a pulsating rhythm” (quoted in De Kooning Paintings: 1960-1980, exh. cat. Kunstmuseum Basel, Basel, 2005, pp. 24-26).
Untitled of 1970 derives from between these two phases, although it appears closer in sensibility to the abstractions of 1975. A sensuous mixture of color, lush texture and calligraphic curves, the essentially abstract painterly forms occasionally transmute from their visceral gumminess into roiling nature and corporeal fleshiness. Featuring a luxurious bright palette and a restraint of broad, rollicking strokes, the work's rich claret interwoven with luminescent reds and intersected by white seduces the viewer with its painterly possibilities suggestive of the faint memory of the landscape and of the woman who once lounged in it. Untitled is an abstraction of such remembered experiences; it is also an analogy of nature and of the body. Capturing energy without beginning or end, the work seems to be simultaneously rising, falling, floating, flying or lying dormant like a distinct organic being.
After relocating to his new studio in East Hampton in 1963, de Kooning turned away from his abstract pastoral landscapes and returned to depictions of the female figure. Oscillating between the figure and landscape throughout his oeuvre, de Kooning used these polarities in a series of pastoral nudes he made during this period. In these works, the figuration and landscape are merged to different degrees in a dialectic between abstraction and figuration. De Kooning’s uninhibited handling of gestural tonality renders the body and nature in some kind of mutual harmony. Working in his studio in the Springs, situated on the eastern end of Long Island, de Kooning was greatly inspired by the luminous landscape that surrounded him.
De Kooning stated, "When I moved into this house, everything seemed self-evident. The space, the light, and the trees—I just accepted it without thinking about it much. Now I look around with new eyes. I think it's all a kind of miracle” (W. de Kooning quoted in H. Rosenberg, "Interview with Willem de Kooning," Art News 71, September 1972). Perhaps the grassy lowlands and bodies of water of the Springs provided a comforting reminder of the aging Dutchman's origins. He spent hours contemplating nature, and one of his favorite pastimes involved bicycling to the beach at Louse Point. He was intrigued by the way colors reflected off the surface of the water and how forms emerged and dissolved without boundaries. Earth, sky, figure and landscape blended their essence without demarcating their contours. As de Kooning explained, "I wanted to get in touch with nature. Not painting scenes from nature, but to get a feeling of that light that was very appealing to me, here particularly. I was always very much interested in water,” (ibid.). The undulating rhythms of brushwork in Untitled recall the oceanic flux that entranced de Kooning. "There is something about being in touch with the sea that makes me feel good, it is the source where most of my painting comes from," de Kooning explained (W. de Kooning, quoted in Willem de Kooning: Paintings, exh. cat., Washington, D.C., p. 198). Nature, which until then had laid relatively fallow in his imagination, resurfaced in these works in an explosive rush. An accumulation of sensations of earth, light, sea and sky became internalized and transfigured into the skin and muscle of paint.
Water also embodied a sort of epiphany to de Kooning in its ability to bring the evanescent sensations of a long life together, conveying the ever-flowing passage of time. The unprecedented liquidity and flow of paint in paintings such as Untitled attest to de Kooning's reveries by bodies of water, absorbing the flickering nuances of sun, atmosphere and foliage and absorbing such fractured images into the realm of experience and memory. Of these abstractions, Bernhard Mendes Burgi states, "The accumulation of sensations between earth and light and water and sky, distilled and detached from anecdotal experience, exploded in a rush of painting. What already applied to the abstract landscapes of the late 1950s and early 1960s became even more conspicuous in the series created between 1975 and 1980. They are not abstractions of the experiences of nature; they are abstract in following an uncurbed energy principle without beginning and end, allowing things to emerge, to rise to the surface in analogy to nature. Everything seems to be floating, flying, lying and falling in these paintings, their energy heightened by a pulsating rhythm” (quoted in De Kooning Paintings: 1960-1980, exh. cat. Kunstmuseum Basel, Basel, 2005, pp. 24-26).
Untitled of 1970 derives from between these two phases, although it appears closer in sensibility to the abstractions of 1975. A sensuous mixture of color, lush texture and calligraphic curves, the essentially abstract painterly forms occasionally transmute from their visceral gumminess into roiling nature and corporeal fleshiness. Featuring a luxurious bright palette and a restraint of broad, rollicking strokes, the work's rich claret interwoven with luminescent reds and intersected by white seduces the viewer with its painterly possibilities suggestive of the faint memory of the landscape and of the woman who once lounged in it. Untitled is an abstraction of such remembered experiences; it is also an analogy of nature and of the body. Capturing energy without beginning or end, the work seems to be simultaneously rising, falling, floating, flying or lying dormant like a distinct organic being.