Lily Pond
Artist: Willem de Kooning (American, 1904-1997)
Date: 1959
Dimensions:
Painting: 70 5/16 × 80 1/8 in. (178.6 × 203.5 cm)
Frame: 70 5/16 × 80 1/8 × 1 1/2 in. (178.6 × 203.5 × 3.8 cm)
Medium: oil on canvas
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number: 1972.32
Label Text:Inspired by the open expanses and sunlight seen on his frequent trips between New York and Long Island, Willem de Kooning used broad, assured brush strokes that appear to rush across this canvas, suggesting powerful natural forces shifting in space. Forms overlap and veils of color painted over wet color enhance the sensation of light and space behind the forms. Not content with portraying the static landscape, de Kooning sought to render the fleeting glimpse, the impression.
De Kooning’s restless and energetic brushwork had grown out of his contact with abstract Surrealism in the 1930s. He produced his breakthrough body of abstract work in the mid-1940s, when he and Jackson Pollock (1912–1956) became known as the two primary purveyors of gestural Abstract Expressionist painting.
De Kooning’s restless and energetic brushwork had grown out of his contact with abstract Surrealism in the 1930s. He produced his breakthrough body of abstract work in the mid-1940s, when he and Jackson Pollock (1912–1956) became known as the two primary purveyors of gestural Abstract Expressionist painting.
On view
In Collection(s)