{"product_id":"willem-de-kooning-tracing-the-figure","title":"Willem de Kooning: Tracing the Figure","description":"\u003cp\u003eWillem de Kooning  one of the great pioneers of Abstract Expressionism  experimented with the human form throughout his career. An artist deeply skeptical about Western ideals of beauty  he focused on anatomical fragmentation and spatial ambiguity to express the fleeting nature of the individual. This strikingly designed book  published in conjunction with an exhibition originating at The Museum of Contemporary Art  Los Angeles  explores de Koonings drawings of the female form between 1940 and 1955. It reveals an artist who struggled to eliminate traditional barriers between drawing and painting as he explored ambiguities between the figure and its background.  De Kooning relied on early-twentieth-century abstraction in his initial attempts to redefine the figure  drawing and re-drawing the same line until he resolved the image. Beginning in 1947-49  he synthesized abstraction and figuration  dismembering figures and rearranging them with seeming randomness. As his figural compositions developed  geometric configurations transformed into architectural elements (suggesting windows  doors  mirrors  paintings  and furniture) to create ambiguous space. In 1951  de Kooning abruptly returned to depictions of women. Using turbulent brushwork  he turned female figures into monumental  intentionally vulgar  wildly distorted images whose parts read alternately as flat pattern and fully rounded forms. The effect is an almost violent sensuality.  The artists later style differed dramatically from that of earlier decades. Familiar shapes and hues suggest that women remain in his works  yet they are distorted beyond recognition as if seen from underwater. As put by Thomas Hess  the artists friend and critic  \"Woman  for de Kooning  is the human equivalent of water; more than a vessel  she embodies it in planes of rippling flesh.\"  EXHIBITION SCHEDULE  http:\/\/www.artcommotion.com\/Issue2\/moca\/home.html The Museum of Contemporary Art  Los Angeles  February 10  2002-May 5  2002  http:\/\/www.nga.gov\/home.htm The National Gallery of Art  Washington  D.C.. September 29  2002-January 5  2003  http:\/\/www.sfmoma.org\/ The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art  June 15 - September 8  2002\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44965362597941,"sku":"ByrdShop_069109618X","price":78.92,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780691096186.jpg?v=1770494106","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/willem-de-kooning-tracing-the-figure","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}