A generous vision
Subtitle: the creative life of Elaine de Kooning
By: Cathy Curtis
Series: Oxford cultural biographies; Oxford cultural biographies
Published: 2017
Language: eng
Number of pages: 292
ISBN-13: 9780190498474
Copyright date: 2017
Subjects: Painters; Women painters; Biography
Description: The first biography of Elaine de Kooning, 'A Generous Vision' portrays a woman whose intelligence, droll sense of humor, and generosity of spirit endeared her to friends and gave her a starring role in the close-knit world of New York artists. Her zest for adventure and freewheeling spending were as legendary as her ever-present cigarette. Flamboyant and witty in person, she was an incisive art writer who expressed maverick opinions in a deceptively casual style. As a painter, she melded Abstract Expressionism with a lifelong interest in bodily movement to capture subjects as diverse as President John F. Kennedy, basketball players, and bullfights. In her romantic life, she went her own way, always keen for male attention. But she credited her husband, Willem de Kooning, as her greatest influence; rather than being overshadowed by his fame, she worked 'in his light.'
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: 1. Drawing and discovering; title: 2. Life with Bill; title: 3. Black Mountain, Provincetown, and the Woman paintings; title: 4. Illuminating art; title: 5. East Hampton, pro sports, and the separation; title: 6. Enchantment; title: 7. Loft life, speaking out, and European vistas; title: 8. Portraits as moments and memory; title: 9. Painting the President; title: 10. Caretaking and cave paintings.