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loujoseph's review against another edition
3.0
I didn't read this one front to back but read as a series of episodes from the artist's life, it was fairly interesting. Still a bit dramatic in the traditional romantic notion of the artist, the writing itself is fine but not very interesting.
nitsabean's review against another edition
2.0
This is certainly an informative read and I would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of de Kooning's work. That sad, it needs to be taken with a grain of salt. I found the writers jumping to a number of conclusions and making a lot of inferences (mostly regarding his relationships and emotions) without anything to back them up. (i.e. - "Though he never said so, it may have been that de Kooning felt..." and we have a page or so of unconfirmed emotional turmoil.) Also, they seem to spend far more time providing biographies for others in his life, or even tangential to his realm of existence than necessary. Lastly, there are a number of grammar and spelling errors, and the writers seem to get themselves stuck on certain words and use them needlessly (the one that comes to mind most is 'milieu'). All in all, the editors did not do their job very well; the book should probably have been half its size, more relevant, less subjective and more readable.
doriastories's review against another edition
4.0
A very well-written, if at times overly adulatory, biography of the artist Willem de Kooning. It draws upon first-hand accounts and sources, and is very complete in most respects. However, the depiction of the artist’s wife, Elaine, is unflattering, and seems to fall short of a more honest appraisal of her abilities and importance as an artist. She is generally given short shrift, and is brushed off as something of an annoyance, which does not do her justice, either as an artist or as his wife. Despite her absence for long stretches, she always returned to him, and they were clearly drawn to each other, regardless of affairs or differences.
I was also surprised to note that the authors made no mention of the important Abstract Expressionist artist Grace Hartigan, who knew and was influenced by de Kooning. Reading about her life and work in the extraordinary not-yet-published book Ninth Street Women, by Mary Gabriel, there is a noteworthy description of her meeting de Kooning early on in her career and development as an artist in their shared territory of lower Manhattan. Yet his biographers did not see fit to include this significant exchange, nor even make reference to Hartigan.
In fact, most of the women in this biography are depicted as entering and leaving de Kooning’s life as if through a revolving door, with only slight mention of their professional work and impact, despite the fact that many of them were part of the artistic community in which de Kooning lived and worked for the entirety of his adult life. His professional world is depicted as largely male-dominated, which may have been true in the 60s and 70s, but was emphatically not the case in the 40s and 50s, when the burgeoning Abstract-Expressionist community of artists in New York was filled with and often led by a significant number of vibrant and active women, among them his own wife.
This biography contains many interesting anecdotes, and includes analyses of a good sampling of de Kooning’s work covering most of his major stylistic periods. It proceeds chronologically, and covers a great deal of territory, especially concerning de Kooning’s upbringing and early education in Holland. There are many valuable firsthand accounts included here, from friends and family, fellow artists and assistants, and observers of the NYC art world. An immense and impressive amount of work was required to bring all of these many threads together - successfully - into one coherent work. I only wish that some of those threads were not cut short or left out in places, to the detriment of our fuller understanding of the world in which de Kooning lived.
I was also surprised to note that the authors made no mention of the important Abstract Expressionist artist Grace Hartigan, who knew and was influenced by de Kooning. Reading about her life and work in the extraordinary not-yet-published book Ninth Street Women, by Mary Gabriel, there is a noteworthy description of her meeting de Kooning early on in her career and development as an artist in their shared territory of lower Manhattan. Yet his biographers did not see fit to include this significant exchange, nor even make reference to Hartigan.
In fact, most of the women in this biography are depicted as entering and leaving de Kooning’s life as if through a revolving door, with only slight mention of their professional work and impact, despite the fact that many of them were part of the artistic community in which de Kooning lived and worked for the entirety of his adult life. His professional world is depicted as largely male-dominated, which may have been true in the 60s and 70s, but was emphatically not the case in the 40s and 50s, when the burgeoning Abstract-Expressionist community of artists in New York was filled with and often led by a significant number of vibrant and active women, among them his own wife.
This biography contains many interesting anecdotes, and includes analyses of a good sampling of de Kooning’s work covering most of his major stylistic periods. It proceeds chronologically, and covers a great deal of territory, especially concerning de Kooning’s upbringing and early education in Holland. There are many valuable firsthand accounts included here, from friends and family, fellow artists and assistants, and observers of the NYC art world. An immense and impressive amount of work was required to bring all of these many threads together - successfully - into one coherent work. I only wish that some of those threads were not cut short or left out in places, to the detriment of our fuller understanding of the world in which de Kooning lived.
conordugan's review
5.0
Very good portrait of a great artist. This book held my attention and opens a window into a fascinating 20th Century life.
elysechev's review
4.0
This is a well researched and well written biography of an artist whose career helped define American art in the second half of the twentieth-century. The sections about the New York art scene in the 1950's are particularly vivid. The only thing I actively disliked in this book was its treatment of Elaine de Kooning. I found it to be rather unfair to her and to her relationship with Willem de Kooning. A lot of de Kooning's female relationships were problematic, and he gets off pretty scot-free in this account.
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