Monday, September 10, 2012

William de Kooning "Excavation"

Artist: William de Kooning
Title: Excavation
Medium: Oil on canvas

William de Kooning was born in 1904, and in 1916 began training as an artist. For the next ten years he would study at various universities and school. He immigrated to the United States in 1926 and worked illegally as a commercial artist, window dresser etc. He eventually met artist such as John Graham and Stuart Davis. With them he worked on the Federal Art Project painting murals for some time. In 1946 William was inspired to begin abstract black and white paintings. He worked with many different mediums on and off for years and eventually came back to abstract painting. This painting in particular "Excavation" is one of his most important works. Done in 1950, it happens to be the largest of all of his paintings. His name became highly renown in terms of Abstract Expressionism. I chose this painting because while I do like abstract art I tend to be very picky when it comes to that particular style. This is simply because I don't like chaos in any form but in the right piece I enjoy it. I happen to like the colors used in this painting in particular as well because they feel warm and calm to me.


No comments:

Post a Comment