FINE ARTS

Hallelujah Painting: Willem de Kooning

By LEO J. O ' D O N O V A N

THOUGH SCARCELYACCORDED the highestrank in the pantheon of art.

America has neverthcles.s had itsshare of artistic accomplishmentand recogniiiun. The expatriatePennsyivanian Benjatnin Westsucceeded Joshua Reynolds as thesecond president of the prestigiou.sRoyal Academy in London, andJnhn Singlelon Copley wasadmired as much in England as inits colonies. John Wilmerding's"American Light" exhibition atthe National Gallery of Art in1981 showed that the so-calledAtnerican lumitiists, following theearlier example of Thomas Coleand inspired by their nation's landand its light, created some of theinosi memorable canvases of thernid-I'tth century anywhere. In thel880's and yO's, Albert PinkhamRyder's mystic pantheism andGeorge Inness' evocative land-scapes rightly claimed an interna-tional renown. Both the publie at ~ " ^large and critics alike have accordedWinsk'w Homer a high place in the historyof art, while Thomas Eakins probablydeserves more than any other painter thetitle of our finest artist.

American impressionists may not haveachieved Ihe level of their European coun-terparts, but William Merritt Chase, MaryCassatt and Childe Hassam continue to beshown in their company. John SingerSargent is a special case, his entire oeuvrewinning the highest admiration from some,while others regret what they consider thecommercialization of his great early talentas he became a hugely successful portraitpainter in England. Eariy in the 2Üth centu-17. American realists of the Ash Can schoolsuch as John Sloan. Robert Henri. George

LEO J. O'DONOVAN, S.J., is presidentof Georgetown University.

connection to traditional repre-sentation. In Pollock it had itspurest example of an emotional,all-over painting in which thetmal works sought to incorporateas much as possible the .sense ofthe actual ereaiive process ofpainting ("action painting" wasthe title given it by HaroldRosenberg in 1^52). In theirwork. Anshile Gorky and FranzKline developed personal inter-pretations of abstraction in mysti-cal and dramatic displays of ele-gant calligraphy or in larger.slashing forms. Barnett Newmanreduced his formal vixrabulary tostark, boldly fiimplified geometriclorms. representin-^ spiritualessences, and rendered them onoften luseiously huge panels.Mark Rothko pressed his floating¡ields of color, seeking commu-nion with each other. 10 their ultí-male extremity in the increasinglyJark canvases that preceded his^uicide.

Woman!, 1950-1952

Bellows and William Glackens developed astyle that commands more attention nowthai 20th-centur) painting is less nanowlyidentified with the French school. Amt ricanpreeisionism and the abstractions of ArthurDove and Marsden Hartley were botli dis-tinctively American and distinctively mod-ern, while Stuart Davis's amtizingly en aliveAmericanization of cubism continues topersuade some of tis of his major status.

But it was not until the years immediate-ly after World War [I that a group ofyoung painters in New York emergtd assuch a vital and dominant foree that theybecame the new center of the art world.The New York sehool. led by Jac^isonPollock and Willem de Kooning, sudtlenlyattracted international attention w th avibrant, dramatically expressive abstrac-tionism, derived from European abstractsutrealism. that retained only the slimmest

OW. through a mar-velously comprehensive and spaciouslyhung exhibition at ttte National Gallery ofArt in Washington, we have an opportunityto consider whether, as many have thought,de K^»ning is the most enduring and fertilemember uf the school. More selective thanthe sprawling Whitney show 1Í) years agoand more representative than theHirshhom's idiosyncratic presentation lastfall, "Willem de Kixming Paintings" gath-ers 76 paintings from a career of almost 50years, Belore ihem. it is almosl imixissiblcnot tc use the tenn "Dutch Master."

Bom in Rotterdam on April 24. 19(14, deKooning began studies at the RotterdamAcademy of Fine Ails and Techniques atthe age of 12. acquiring a proficiency indraftsmanship, perspective and anatomythat was unique among his .subsequent col-leagues. He was smuggled into Htibokenby Dutch sailors in 1926 and moved to

AMERICA AUGUST 27, 199419

FALL ANNOUNCEMENTS" HealinnSpiritual Abuse

& 1ReliäousMdicttony

natitwwUnnShdto Mricwt UrnDennis Unn

AVAILABLEADVENT THIRST...CHRISTMAS HOPEPrayer and Meditation for thelourney, Atrita M. Constance3511-6 $4.95AGING IN THE LORDMary Hesier Vaientine3486-1 $7.95CODEPENDENCY: PowerLoss,SoulLoss, Dorothy May3532-9 $14.95CRYSTAL STAR ANGELAnita Joyce Skocz6617-8 $5.95EARTH AGE, A New Vision ofGod, the Human and the EarthLorna Green3496-9 $8.95HEALING SPIRITUAL ABUSEAND RELIGIOUS ADDICTIONMatthew Linn, Sheila FabricantLinn and Dennis Linn3488-8 $8.95HOW TO READ THE BIBLEALOUD, Oral Interpretation ofScripture, Jack Rang3493-4 $10.95IN GOD'S SHADOWThe Collaboration of Victor Whiteand e.G. lung(lung and Spirituality Series)Ann Conrad Lammers3489-6 $19.95AN INTRODUCTION TO NEWTESTAMENT CHRISTOLOGYRaymond E. Brown. S.S.Cloth 0469-5 $19.95Paper 3516-7 $9.95

ISRAEL'S PROPHETSAn Introduction for Christians andJews, David /. Zucker3494-2 $11.95LIVING IN THE MEANTIMEConcerning the Transformation ofReligious Lifeedited by Paul J. Philibert, O.P3519-1 $14.95OBSESSION WITH JUSTICEThe Story of the DeuteronomistsWilliam ¡. Doorly3487-X $12.95A PAGE A DAY FOR ADVENTAND THE CHRISTMASSEASON, 1994Stephanie Collins3498-5 $2.50

Raymond E. Brown

Anlntroductkmto New Testament

Chiistolo$y

READING THE CORINTHIANCORRESPONDENCEAn IntroductionKevin Quast3481-0 $14.95SACRED IDENTITYExploring a Theologyof the Person, Jane Kopas3497-7 $11.95TRANSFORMING THE MIND,HEALING THE WORLD(Wit Lecture)Joseph Goldstein3484-5 $3.95WHAT DO 1 WANT INPRAYER?William A. Barry, S.f.3482-9 $8.95

O C T O B E R '94ARE THERE STRIPES INHEAVEN? Lee Klein6618-6 $4.95AS YOU AND THE ABUSEDPERSON JOURNEY TOGETHER(IlluminationBook)Sharon E. Cheston3513-2 $3.95HIDDEN SPRINGThe Spiritual Dimension ofTherapy, Thomas Hart3500-0 $11.95IMAGE GUIDANCE ANDHEALINGElizabeth Anne Vanek3508-6 $10.95LECTIONARY-BASEDCATECHESIS FOR CHILDRENSylvia DeVillers3505-1 $10.95LESSONS FROM THEMONASTERY THAT TOUCHYOUR LIFE(IlluminationBook)M. Basil Pennington, O.C.S.O.3515-9 $3.95LITTLE PIECES OF LIGHT..DARKNESS AND PERSONALGROWTH (IlluminationBook)¡oyce Rupp3512-4 $3.95

PAULIST PRESS997 Macarthur Blvd.Mahwah, N.J. 07430

201-825-7300

Worn Paulist PressHAPPY FAULT

'ersonul Recovery Throughipiritual Growthîobert M. GorrityÍ501 9 $11.95»REPARING FOR WORSHIPiundays and Feast Days-Cycle C'¡aniel Donovan1507-8 $11.95REFRESHED BY THE WORDlycle C, John £. O'Brien506-X $10.95;CRIPTURE, THE SOUL OFHEOLOGY

xseph A. Fitzmyer, S.¡.509-4 $10.95ITTING STILLatricia Hart Clifford470-9 $9.95PIRITUALITY, STRESSiND YOUllluminationBook)homas E. Rodgerson514-0 $3.95VATER FROM THE ROCKinding Grace in Times of Griefm Fraser504-3 $6.95

YOUR KIDS GO TOOLLEGEicantonio N. Salvi andUchael /. Hunt, C.S.P.502-7 $5.95

Little PiecesofLighf...

Darkness^Personal Growth

PAULIST PRESS997 Macarthur Blvd.Mahwah. N.J. 07430

201-825-7300

D E C E M B E R ' 9 4

THE CLASSIC MIDRASHTannaitic Commentaries on theBible (Classics of WesternSpirituality Series)translated, edited, and introduced byReuven HammerCloth 0467-9 $24.95 (t)Paper 3503-5 $18.95 (t)DIVINE REPRESENTATIONSPostmodernism and Spiritualityedited by Ann W. Astell3528 0 $12.95 (t)FINDING GODA Handbook of ChristianMeditationKenneth Kaisch3529 9 $14.95 (t)

FINDING GOD INTROUBLED TIMESThe Holy Spirit and SufferingRichard f. Häuser, S.f.3531-0 $8.95 (t)FROM MY HEART TOYOUR HEARTIna Robbins6619-4 S4.95 (t)GIFT AND RESPONSEA Biblical Spirituality forContemporary ChristiansCarolyn Thomas3510-8 $9.95 (t)HANDBOOK OF SPIRITUAUTYFOR MINISTERSedited by Robert /. Wicks3521 3 $18.95 (t)

HUÎvlAN RELATIONSHIPS ANDTHK EXPERIENCE OF GODPsychoanalytic Object RelationsThedry and Religion(Integration Book)Michael St. Clair3530-2 $8.95 (t)IÑIGOThe Life of St. Ignatius Loyola forYour g Readers, /, janda6620-8 $5.95 (t)THt LENTEN KITCHENBarbara Benjamin and AlexandriaDamascus Vali354;-6 $6.95 (tíLET ALL GOD'S GLORYTHROUGHPetei G. van Breeman, S.\.3525-6 $9.95 (t)

THE ORIGINS OF THE BIBLERethinking Canon History(Theological Inquiries Series)lohn W. Miller35221 $12.95 (t)

A PAGE A DAY FOR LENT 1995Margaret Ellen McGraw, CS.J.3520 5 $2.95 (t)PRAYER OF HEART AND BODYMeditation and Yoga as ChristianSpiritual PracticeThomas P. Ryan, C.S.P.3523 X $9.95 (t)

PRAYERS FOR A NEWWORLD ORDERBetsy Clark, S.S.J.3527 2 $4.95 (t)

PRAYERS FROM THE CROSSSolaoî for All Seasons¡ohn V Mossi, S.J.3524 8 $3.95 (t)

RESPONSES TO 101QUE;;TIONS ON THE PSALMSAND OTHER WRITINGSRoland E. Murphy, O. Carm.3526-4 $7.95 (t)

New York the next year, working in vari-ous jobs as a house painter, carpenter andcommercial artist. Fired from the FederalArt Project of the W.P.A. in 1936, hemoved towards becoming a full-time artist.In New York he became close to StuartDavis, Arshile Gorky and John Graham,who included him among the best youngAmerican painters in his influential"System and Dialectics of Art"(1937).

1 HE FIRST PAINTINGSin the present exhibition, fromthe years 1938 to 1944. are ofmale and female figures, andthey suggest immediately someof the artist's greatest strengths:command of line, inventivecolor, technical and formal cre-ativity, an uncanny ability tocommunicate emotional disloca-tion and turbulence. "StandingMan" (c. 1942) evokes Matisse'sabstract figures of the pre-WorldWar I years, while "SeatedFigure (Classic Male)" (!940)recalls Picasso's Saltimbanques _ _ _ ^as well as his neoclassical paint-ings of the l920's. But only de Kooningwould leave such lovely early lines ofdrawing in place, painted over with laterforms rendered in soft pink or beige andarticulated not primarily by anatomy but byfeeling.

The female figures here are more vivid-ly, even garishly, painted, mixingchartreuse yellows, lime greens, pinks andburnt orange. The most beautiful. "SeatedWoman" (c. 1940) from the PhiladelphiaMuseum oí Art, shows its model on a chairby a window, imagined over and over againby the artist through a long series of sit-tings. From the beginning, de Kooningworked and reworked his canvases endless-ly, satisfied only when accident broughthim a temporarily satisfactory result. Herethe various arrangements of the woman'sarms and legs and torso combine into onedynamic image whose face with its shad-owed green eyes looks into the distancebeyond artist and viewer to ask not only"Who am I?" but also "What shall I say?"

It is startling to move to the next galleryof the exhibition, in which the palette isalmost exclusively black and white. Thehuman form, when suggested, is disassem-bled and rendered as generalized, biomor-phic shapes that pitch unpredictably in

black and white webs. Before "Attic"(1940) from the Metropolitan Museum ofArt. for example, with its several gapingheads, one may feel a host of hoardedmemories from a part of one's house sel-dom visited—or else the eariy struggle forform in ancient Greece. "Black Friday"(1948). on the other hand, conveys a moodof gravity, lightened by elegant drawing

frame where something could be possible,where an artist could practice his intuition "

Several large female figures from theseyears suggest the paintings for which deKooning later became most famous. Eachhas a similar format: a woman with herhead turned up, away from the viewer, withgaping eyes and teeth, a feral nose, pro-nounced breasts and coarse references to

her female organs. Luscious col-oring—gold and violet, orangeand yellow—heightens themanic mood and the plea formeaning.

"Woman I" from the Museumof Modem Art in New York, onwhich de Kooning worked from1950 to 1952. is recognized asthe breakthrough in the new.series. He went on to press hisinsights and present the femalefigure "as a landscape" (in 1954-55) or as what?—an explosion,perhaps, in "Woman Vl" (1953).These figures at once ferociousand erotic, lavishly hucd. are asseductive as they ai-e forbidding.

Excavation, 1950

and dramatic touches of carmine red andpale green. And "'Painting" (1948), entirelyin black and white, with the painter's ownprofile seemingly suggested and a fedorahat included perhaps as a tribute to hisfriendship with Stuart Davis, has all thejauntiness of an evening's bonhomieamong male friends. (1948 was the year ofde Kooning's first solo exhibition in NewYork, in which he showed mostly blackand white works.)

But in Ihe late 194O's de Kooning alsoused brilliant color, with a red ground con-veying the high life of the various formsdancing on it in "Gansevoort Street" (c.1949). or pale yellows and oranges suggest-ing the exhilaralion of a day at sea. high-lighted by a Hoffmanesquc rectangle ofindigo blue, in "Sail Cloth" (c. 1949). Moremysterious, but as enchanting as a springlyric, is the Phillips Collection's"Asheville" (1948). which draws one intoand out from and around the canvas with itscompact, swirling, brilliantly hued forms.Each of the paintings reveals how deeplyindebted de Kooning was to cubism, withits fragmented forms reassembled in shal-low space. "Of all movements," he said, "!like cubism most. It had that wonderfulunsure atmosphere of reflection—^a poetic

X ICASSO had long sincedeconstructed the female face and figure.De Kooning reassembles the parts into amenacing, promising whole of confronta-tion, with each figure crowding the canvasand demanding our intimidated attention.From the beginning they were attacked fortheir supposed misogyny, as they surelywill be now. ("That ferocious woman hepainted didn't come from living with me."said his wife Elaine. "It began when he wasthree years old.") But there is humor andgreat ambiguity in the works as well. DeKooning cut mouths out of magazineadvertisements and pasted them playfullyonto his canvases. He confessed that in fact"many of my paintings of women havebeen self-port rails." Somehow the resultscontinue to command, testifying to thefemale form and presence as the primal factoí de Kooning's life, the theme, along withlandscape, worthiest of his creative energy.

Other, brilliantly hued. almost entirelyabstract compositions trom the niid-50's.such as "Composition," "Gotham News" or"Belize Gazette." seem almost a welcomerelief when presented in the same gallerywith de Kooning's women. With theirbroad, free brush strokes and great swathsof contrasting color, their remarkable ener-gy and balance, these paintings in many

22AMERICA AUGUST 27, 1994