Remembering Willem de Kooning (1904-1997)

“Willem De Kooning in his studio Springs Long Island. I visited with my stepmother Edith, his fly unbuttoned, he showed me his brushes lined up neatly on a table, “I wash them, clean them all myself,” and said of his new canvases,” I’m just a sign painter”” [Ginsberg caption]  – Willem de Kooning photographed by Allen Ginsberg, 1985 – © The Estate of Allen Ginsberg
Willem de Kooning. Untitled XVII, 1984. Oil on canvas, 70 x 80 inches (203.20 x 177.80 cm). Private collection.

It’s twenty years since the passing of the great Abstract Expressionist master, Willem de Kooning. In the latter part of his life, Allen was able to make an hommage and visit to him in his studio in East Hampton and de Kooning posed for pictures.

Here are a couple of these rarely-seen images

Willem De Kooning – Photograph by Allen Ginsberg – © The Estate of Allen Ginsberg

Willem De Kooning – Photograph by Allen Ginsberg – © The Estate of Allen Ginsberg

For more on the artist (a brief biography) – see here, a chronology, here, a bibliography, here – and many more further illuminating images of the artist and his art work.

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