WILLEM DE KOONING
American/Dutch (1904-1997)
Woman, ca. 1954-1974
oil, charcoal and gouache on paper laid down on canvas, signed and inscribed lower right "To Max, for old times' sake /Bill / de Kooning"
23 1/4 x 18 1/4 inches (sight)

Provenance: The artist; Private Collection, New York, New York; by descent; Sotheby's, New York, New York, November 13, 2002, lot 227; The Jeanne and Carroll Berry Collection, Atlanta, Georgia.

Exhibitions: Ackland Art Museum, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, March 4 - May 31, 2007; Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, "Advanced and Irascible: Abstract Expressionism from the Collection of Jeanne and Carroll Berry," Jan. 14 - Apr. 30, 2017.

Literature: Stevens, Mary and Annalyn Swan, "de Kooning - An American Master," (New York, New York: Knopf, 2006), p. 145.

Other Notes:

The Woman became compulsive in the sense of not being able to get a hold of it—it really is very funny to get stuck with a woman's knees, for instance. You say, "What the hell am I going to do with that now?", it's really ridiculous. It may be that it fascinates me, that it is not supposed to be done. A lot of people paint a figure because they feel it out to be done, because since they're human beings themselves, they feel they ought to make another one, a substitute. I haven't got that interest at all. I really think it's sort of silly to do it. But the moment you take this attitude it's just as silly not to do it.
-Willem de Kooning, Excerpt from an interview with David Sylvester (BBC), Spring 1963

Willem de Kooning arrived in the United States as a young man snuck aboard a ship from the Netherlands. He skirted immigration in Virginia and made his way to New Jersey. There, he worked as a house painter, carpenter, and sign maker. He made his way to New York where he befriended Arshile Gorky and John Graham who quickly brought de Kooning into the fold of the downtown New York City art scene.

In 1929, he worked with Fernand Leger on a mural project for the WPA. By 1936 he was a full-time artist. A few years later, by the end of the 1930s and early 40s de Kooning together with Gorky had become the underground leaders of the New York art scene, de Kooning was known as an "artist's artist" among his peers. In 1945, his work was included in Peggy Guggenheim's show "Art of this Century" alongside his contemporaries Hans Hofmann, Jackson Pollock, and Robert Motherwell.

In 1948 Charles Egan Gallery hosted de Kooning's first one-man show. Three years later he was awarded the Logan Medal and Purchase Prize from the Art Institute of Chicago for Excavation (1950) an icon of American Modernism. Critic Clement Greenberg begin to champion his work during this period and later Harold Rosenberg a rivaling critic also supported de Kooning's style.

In 1953, de Kooning shocked the art world by exhibiting his "Women" paintings. These aggressively painted figural works were seen by some as a betrayal of Abstract Expressionist principles. The Women paintings represented a commitment to the figurative tradition when artists like Pollock and Kline were moving away from representational imagery to pure abstraction. He lost the support of Greenberg, but Rosenberg continued to laud his works. MoMA purchased Woman I in 1953, a validation of de Kooning's new experiment.

The present composition on paper relates closely to Woman in the Water, a 1967 oil on paper mounted on canvas, illustrated in Thomas B. Hess' Willem de Kooning (MoMA, 1968). De Kooning was fond of working on paper, as it allowed for an immediacy that appealed to him. Woman presented here, is primarily a drawing on paper, but there are numerous places where the artist applied color and surface texture to the composition.

Inscribed on the lower right the drawing reads "To Max for Old Times Sake" Bill / de Kooning." Max likely refers to Max Margulis, a friend, musician, and writer in the downtown New York milieu of artists and intellectuals in the post-war period. Margulis was known as affectionately as "Max the Owl" for his horn-rimmed glasses.

tags: Abstract Expressionist, works on paper, 19th century, post war

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total buyer's premium) and purchases made online through
shannons.com will be subject to an additional 2% charge
(27% buyer's premium). Payment may be made by, check,
ACH or wire transfer. Visa, MasterCard and Amex may
be used up to the amount of $5,000 per auction. We currently
collect sales tax in CT, KS, MA, MI, NE, NJ, NY, OH, OK, PA, RI and
VA and remit the appropriate sales tax. If we do not collect sales
tax in your state, it is still your responsibility to pay the proper tax
on your purchases.
ALL ITEMS MUST BE PAID FOR WITHIN 14 DAYS OF THE SALE, AT WHICH POINT THEY WILL BE RELEASED FOR SHIPMENT OR DELIVERY.

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VA and remit the appropriate sales tax. If we do not collect sales
tax in your state, it is still your responsibility to pay the proper tax
on your purchases.
ALL ITEMS MUST BE PAID FOR WITHIN 14 DAYS OF THE SALE, AT WHICH POINT THEY WILL BE RELEASED FOR SHIPMENT OR DELIVERY.

Condition Statement & Glossary of Terms

Shannon's LLC Fine Art Auctioneers acts solely as an agent for various owners and consignors. It exercises care in describing all items listed and uses judgment in attributing authorship, but offers no guarantee regarding authenticity, condition, or description. The items described in this catalog, which description may be amended by notice or announcement at sale time, are offered for sale by Shannon's LLC as agent for various owners or others authorized to sell the items.

Glossary of Terms:
After:A work of art or object made in the style of an artist or maker, but not by the artist. Sometimes refers multiples that may have used an artist's mold or plate, but were reproduced by someone other than the artist, including posthumous works. Can also be used to describe a direct reproduction after an original work of art.
Attributed (attr.):In our opinion, probably or possibly a work of art by the artist. The work is either unsigned, and/or lacks adequate provenance or authentication by experts in the field.
Bears Signature: The work is signed, but the work and signature may not be by the hand of the artist.
Manner of: Made in the likeness or style of an artist, with a slight possibility that it was made by the artist or by a follower or student of the artist. Also see "After" and "Attributed".
Possibly:Being something that may or may not be true or actual without guarantee.
Probably:Supported by evidence strong enough to establish presumption but not proof. We do not guarantee it to be true.
School:Usually relates to a particular artistic or aesthetic movement. It can also relate to an actual school or to followers of a particular artist or maker. Also see:"Manner of", "Style", "Attributed to" and "After".
Style:After the time period in which the style originated, or a more recent reproduction (ie: Style of Pablo Picasso or Cubist Style), used to refer to the style of a particular artist or artistic movement, generally made long after that time period.