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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

“If I stretch my arms and wonder where my fingers are - that is all the space I need as a painter.”

Ifs Needs Space Wonder Arms Fingers Painter

Book:De Kooning: A Retrospective

Source: De Kooning: A Retrospective

“The idea of space is given to the artist to change if he can. The subject matter in the abstract is space.”

Ifs Ideas Matter Artist Given Space Subjects Abstract Subject Matter

Book:De Kooning: A Retrospective

Source: De Kooning: A Retrospective

“Man's own form in space - his body - was a private prison; and that it was because of this imprisoning misery - because he was hungry and overworked and went to a horrid place called home late at night in the rain, and his bones ached and his head was heavy.”

Men Home Body Form Night Space Late Rain Prison Misery Heavy Bones Hungry Private Prisons

Author:Willem de Kooning

“Whatever an artist's personal feelings are, as soon as an artist fills a certain area on the canvas or circumscribes it, he becomes historical. He acts from or upon other artists. An artist is someone who makes art too. He did not invent it. How it started — "to hell with it." It is obvious that it has no progress. The idea of space is given him to change if he can. The subject matter in the abstract is space. He fills it with an attitude. The attitude never comes from himself alone.”

Artist Space Attitude

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

“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

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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