For my final blog post, I researched…drum roll please…you guessed it! A female artist. In a similar fashion to Sonia Delauney, I stumbled across the artist I researched this week through her husband, much to my own displeasure.
Elaine de Kooning was a skilled and proficient American painter and wife of Willem de Kooning. She was skilled across the board, from figurative art, abstract art, writing, art criticism, and proto-feminist. She had entrepreneurial skills from a young age, selling portraits of her classmates at the age of 8 and a special fearlessness, garnering her a reputation as a daredevil.
Elaine De Kooning specialized in portraits. This figurative approach was unusual at the time of Abstract Expressionism but is a breath of fresh air with the power of her strokes and use of color. She loved to paint portraits of her friends and was even commissioned for a portrait by John F. Kennedy
Influenced by cave paintings, her paintings possess a raw quality.
Willem de Kooning used to be her old teacher, who she married after being his student. Their relationship was hard due to Willem’s own psychological issues facing abuse and the hyper-sexualization of his mother from a young age.
Unfortunately, she also sacrificed her career for her husband. She believed he was a genius and gave up everything to help convince the world of it. For the promotion of art, she even went so far as to sleep with people who could help Willem be successful. I admire that she did this and believed in him so, but it’s sad that she had to put her paintbrush down to achieve this. When has there ever been a female artist whose husband gave up his craft for her? I’m afraid this is only ever expected of women, leading me to believe there must have been countless other female artists who were lost to time, willfully so as to support the men in their life. I hope one day that women will be recognized, not only for their skill and talent, but their sacrifices made for art history. The lost mothers, sisters, daughters, and wives of our heroes deserve a place beside them in the canon of art history.
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Comments
Sophia,
I completely agree with what you say here about female artists throughout art history. It’s a sad truth that many have been marginalized over and over again. That said I do believe there is a serious sea change in the last few decades or more where women are becoming more recognized for their work and taking their rightful places in the history books. You make a very good argument here so you get 2/2 for this last post. Also your score on the final quiz was 46/50 so well done! Has been a pleasure to have you in class this term. Enjoy your holiday break.
Jeff