Elaine de Kooning

Also known as Elaine Marie Catherine de Kooning, Elaine Maria Catherine Fried, Elaine Maria Catherine De Kooning, Elaine Fried, Elaine Marie Catherine De Kooning, Elaine Fried De Kooning, Elaine DeKooning

American painter (1918-1989)

Quotes

“A painting to me is primarily a verb, not a noun, an event first and only secondarily an image.”
“When I painted my seated men, I saw them as gyroscopes. Portraiture always fascinated me because I love the particular gesture of a particular expression or stance.. .Working on the figure, I wanted paint to sweep through as feelings sweep through..”
“When I painted Frank O'Hara, [in 1962] Frank was standing there. First I painted the whole structure of his face; then I wiped out the face, and when the face was gone, it was more Frank than when the face was there.”
“Always when I look at anyone's art, I get flashes of the person. If I walk into a room and there's a painting by Joan Mitchell, I say, "There's Joannie." Or Grace, if it's Grace Hartigan. And to me all art is self-portraits.”
“[In the past] women painted women: Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, Mary Cassatt, and so forth. And I thought, men always painted the opposite sex, and I wanted to paint men as sex objects.”
“I always say I'm an escape artist, Style is something I've always tried to avoid. I'm more interested in character. Character comes out of the work. Style is applied or imposed on it.”