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Untitled

A work made of oil and enamel on paper, mounted on composition board.
© 2018 The Willem de Kooning Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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  • A work made of oil and enamel on paper, mounted on composition board.

Date:

1948/49

Artist:

Willem de Kooning
American, born Netherlands, 1904–1997

About this artwork

Willem de Kooning established his reputation as a key figure in the Abstract Expressionist movement with a series of black-and-white paintings that he created in the late 1940s using household enamels and paper. With their lyrical brushwork and biometric shapes, these works marked the artist’s shift from a representational or figurative drawing style to the new gestural tendencies of the New York School. Once he eliminated color from his palette, de Kooning became more spontaneous with his application of paint, pushing his compositions to the edge of the paper. The resulting works embodied the physical act of painting, a defining characteristic of what would later become termed “action painting.”

Status

On View, Gallery 291

Department

Contemporary Art

Artist

Willem de Kooning

Title

Untitled

Place

United States (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1948–1949

Medium

Oil and enamel on paper, mounted on composition board

Inscriptions

Not inscribed on recto; inscribed: verso: "de Kooning" (upper left in black crayon)

Credit Line

Gift from the Mary and Earle Ludgin Collection

Reference Number

1981.260

Copyright

© 2018 The Willem de Kooning Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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