Elaine de Kooning
Subtitle: portraits
By: Brandon Brame Fortune, Ann Eden Gibson, Simona Cupic
Contributors: Čupić, Simona, author; National Portrait Gallery (Smithsonian Institution)
Publisher: Published for the National Portrait Gallery; DelMonico Books, Prestel
Published: 2015
Language: eng
Number of pages: 144
ISBN-13: 9783791354385
Subjects: American Portraits; Exhibitions
Description: "John F. Kennedy, Frank O'Hara, Allen Ginsberg, Merce Cunningham, and Fairfield Porter were just some of the figures who sat for portraits by Elaine de Kooning. Famous for her marriage to the Abstract Expressionist Willem de Kooning, Elaine was herself a groundbreaking artist and writer who challenged many conventions during her career. Although she portrayed women, she was most engaged with portraits of men, sometimes painting multiple portraits of her subjects in order to explore and capture their most compelling likeness. She focused intently on her subjects--as she wrote in 1965, "Like falling in love painting a portrait is a concentration on one particular person and no one else will do." This insightful book explores de Kooning's portraits as well as her artistic process and her position in the rise of Postmodernism. Illustrated throughout with full-color reproductions of paintings, drawings, and archival photos, this book is an important contribution to the literature on Abstract Expressionism, women artists, and feminism during a transformative period, and will also appeal to lovers of painting of all kinds." -- Publisher's description.
Notes: Catalogue published in conjunction with the exhibition "Elaine de Kooning: Portraits," at the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., March 13, 2015-January 10, 2016.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 133-139) and index.
Table of contents: title: Foreword  -- Kim Sajet; title: Likeness as a glimpse: Elaine de Kooning's portraits  -- Brandon Brame Fortune; title: Elaine de Kooning's Joop series: visualizing the modern subject in portraiture  -- Ann Eden Gibson; title: JFK by E de K: "A woman paints one man"  -- Simona Cupic; title: Eleaine de Kooning Exhibition history.