Willem de Kooning Quotes on Art

Willem de Kooning was a famous Dutch born American Abstract Expressionist painter and sculptor. He is best known for his wildly expressive paintings at the forefront of the Abstract Expressionism art movement and was part of the informal New York School group of artists. Famous Willem de Kooning paintings include “Woman I”, “Excavation”, “Black Untitled”, “Clamdigger”, “Interchange”, and “Woman in Landscape III”.

Mini biography: Born Willem de Kooning on the 24th of April, 1904 in Rotterdam, Netherlands. His mother was Cornelia Nobel and his father Leendert de Kooning. De Kooning married Elaine Fried in 1943 and they separated in 1957 but were never divorced. The couple reunited in 1976. Elaine de Kooning was also a painter. The artist died on the 19th of March, 1997 in East Hampton, New York, United States of America at the age of 92.

List of Famous Willem de Kooning Art Quotes

Art never seems to make me peaceful or pure. I always seem to be wrapped in the melodrama of vulgarity. Willem de Kooning

Whatever an artist’s personal feelings are, as soon as an artist fills a certain area on the canvas or circumscribes it, he becomes historical. He acts from or upon other artists. Willem de Kooning

You know the real world, this so-called real world, is just something you put up with. Like everybody else. I’m in my element when I am a little bit out of this world. Then I’m in the real world.. I’m on the beam. Because when I’m falling, I’m doing all right. When I’m slipping, I say: he, this is interesting. It’s when I’m standing upright that bothers me. Willem de Kooning

In art, one idea is as good as another. If one takes the idea of trembling, for instance, all of a sudden most art starts to tremble. Michelangelo starts to tremble. El Greco starts to tremble. All the Impressionists start to tremble. Willem de Kooning

I am always in the picture somewhere. The amount of space I use I am always in, I seem to move around in it. And there seems to be a time when I lose sight of what I wanted to do, and then I am out of it. If the picture has a countenance I keep it. If it hasn’t, I throw it away. Willem de Kooning

Nature then, is just nature. I admit I am very impressed with it. The attitude that nature is chaotic and that the artist puts order into it is a very absurd point of view, I think. All that we can do for is to put some order in ourselves. When a man ploughs his field at the right time, it means just that. Willem de Kooning

The attitude that nature is chaotic and that the artist puts order into it is a very absurd point of view, I think. All that we can hope for is to put some order into ourselves. Willem de Kooning

I do not need a movement. What was given to me, I take for granted. Of all movements, I like Cubism most. It had that wonderful unsure atmosphere of reflection – a poetic frame where something could be possible, where an artist could practice his intuition. It didn’t want to get rid of what went before. Instead it added something to it. Willem de Kooning

The trouble with being poor is that it takes up all your time. Willem de Kooning

Art Quotes About Willem de Kooning

I don’t think of my work as calligraphic. Critics also describe Jackson and De Kooning as calligraphic painters but calligraphy has nothing to do with us. It’s interesting that the Oriental critics never say this. The Oriental idea of space is an infinite space; it is not painted space, and ours is. Franz Kline Quotes

De Kooning is my main man, really, because he just did everything you can do with paint. He reversed it, dripped it, scraped it. But I want to hold on to a certain amount of reality. Jenny Saville Quotes

Willem de Kooning Self Portrait Painting

More on American Artist Willem de Kooning

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Related or similar popular artists and celebrities include: Elaine de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner, Mark Rothko and Georg Baselitz.