de Kooning: An American Master

"My interest in how an artist’s work can be integrated into the story of a life led me to the biography of de Kooning by Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan. Biographies work on several levels, from the intimate to the historical, from Isabel’s jewels to a king’s decision to divorce her daughter. The story of de Kooning is one of the immigrant experience in early twentieth century America, the mid-century New York art world and its wide-ranging cast of characters from artists, to critics, to dealers and so much more. At the center is the artist, his art, his relationships. “From the outset, Goya was convinced of his calling as an artist” The authors command a vast amount of information (detailed in the notes and bibliography) in a story that takes us from the artist’s beginning in the slums of Rotterdam to his dementia late in life, to create a compelling narrative that illustrates what a biography of a figure of recent history might accomplish. Through the accounts of his contemporaries, de Kooning emerges not only as a great artist, but as sympathetic figure for whom we are rooting from the first pages, sharing his delight as he splurges on a $700 phonograph to listen to Stravinsky, disliking Arshile G orky who turns his back on him, and feeling a foreboding as he takes his first drink. We become engaged, and dislike those who betray him: does anyone like Elaine de Kooning ? And then, there is the painting, judiciously selected, often with a focus on a single work that culminates a chapter, embodying the challenges described in the narrative while illustrating points of arrival within de Kooning’s long journey as an artist. I hadn’t thought of comparing Goya and de Kooning. But if I do, it seems to me that differences loom larger that similarities. From the outset, Goya was convinced of his calling as an artist, unlike de Kooning, who continually questioned himself. De Kooning was part of a larger art world, always aware of what was going on; perhaps it was to Goya’s benefit that he became deaf at the age of 43—offering him, amidst the politics of the court and its artist—a solitude that spurred his creativity."