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Willem de Kooning Quotes

Artist

Willem de Kooning was a Dutch-born American abstract expressionist painter. Known for his bold colors and dynamic brushstrokes, his work had a profound impact on 20th-century art.

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All Art Artist Paint Painting Thinking Ifs Ideas Space Abstract Form I Can Way Absurd Certain Matter Painter Peaceful Pure Seems Abstraction

Famous Willem de Kooning Quotes

“Not even for a million dollars would I paint a tree.”

Millions Tree Dollars Paint Million Dollars

Author:Willem de Kooning

“It's really absurd to make... a human image, with paint, today, when you think about it... But then all of a sudden, it was even more absurd not to do it.”

Thinking Humans Today Paint Absurd Portraiture

Book:Willem de Kooning, 1904-1997: Content as a Glimpse

Source: Willem de Kooning, 1904-1997: Content as a Glimpse

“The word 'abstract' comes from the light tower of the philosophers. One of their spotlights that they have particularly focused on 'Art'. [Abstraction was] not so much what you could paint but rather what you could not paint. You could not paint a house or a tree or a mountain. It was then that subject matter came into existence as something you ought not have.”

Art Matter Light House Existence Tree Subjects Ought Mountain Paint Philosopher Abstract Towers Abstraction Subject Matter Spotlight

Author:Willem de Kooning

“If you pick up some paint with your brush and make somebody's nose with it, this is rather ridiculous when you think of it, theoretically or philosophically. It's really absurd to make an image, like a human image, with paint, today.”

Ifs Thinking Humans Today Picks Paint Ridiculous Absurd Noses Brushes

Book:Willem de Kooning, 1904-1997: Content as a Glimpse

Source: Willem de Kooning, 1904-1997: Content as a Glimpse

“I don't paint to live, I live to paint.”

Art Passion Paint

Author:Willem de Kooning

“I'm not interested in 'abstracting' or taking things out or reducing painting to design, form, line, and color. I paint this way because I can keep putting more things in it - drama, anger, pain, love, a figure, a horse, my ideas about space. Through your eyes it again becomes an emotion or idea.”

Way I Can Ideas Eye Pain Form Lines Space Emotion Figures Design Color Painting Drama Horse Paint Not Interested Reducing Because I Can Love Pain

Author:Willem de Kooning

“An artist is forced by others to paint out of his own free will.”

Art Artist Paint Free Will

Book:Willem de Kooning

Source: Willem de Kooning

“I paint the way I do because I can keep on putting more and more things in - like drama, pain, anger, love, a figure, a horse, my ideas of space. It doesn't matter if it differs from mine, as long as it comes from the painting, which has its own integrity and intensity.”

Ifs Way Long I Can Ideas Matter Pain Space Figures Mines Painting Integrity Drama Horse Paint Intensity Because I Can Anger Love

Author:Willem de Kooning

“What you do when you paint, you take a brush full of paint, get paint on the picture, and you have faith.”

Paint Have Faith Brushes

Book:De Kooning: A Retrospective

Source: De Kooning: A Retrospective

About the Author

Born: April 24, 1904
Died: March 19, 1997
Known for: Artist
Quotes: 54

Books & Sources

De Kooning: A RetrospectiveRelated source material

Willem de Kooning: Pittsburgh International Series, October 26, 1979-January 6, 1980, Museum of Art, Carnegie InstituteRelated source material

Willem de Kooning, 1904-1997: Content as a GlimpseRelated source material

De Kooning: a centennial exhibitionRelated source material

Willem de KooningRelated source material

De Kooning: paintings, 1960-1980Related source material

Willem De Kooning: Vellums : March 21-April 21, 2001Related source material

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