A review by nitsabean
de Kooning: An American Master by Mark Stevens, Annalyn Swan

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.