Viewing Room 19
Willem de Kooning in Italy
Willem de Kooning In Italy link
This week I share some of the works included in the “Willem de Kooning and Italy” exhibition now at the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice. See the Viewing Room by clicking the link above.
It is always such a pleasure to read what you have to say about any artists you choose to present, and this post is no exception. One point you made that I particularly appreciated was this: “Many artists who create both two and three dimensional works shift between media to resolve artistic challenges or to explore new takes on older ideas.” So obvious once you state it, but it had not occurred to me! I was also led to question, once again, why Louise Fishman is not appreciated more, particularly on viewing de Kooning’s (Untitled (Rome), which I found so reminiscent of some Fishman works. Is it because she came later? Did her work seem derivative? (It reminds me of the saying about Rachmaninov, that his music was like a postcard that came 50 years too late—yet why should it matter, as he composed so many exquisite works.) I am also reminded of an artist, brand new to me, to which a friend in Germany introduced me a few days ago. Not that his work is like de Kooning’s at all, but that, similar to de Kooning’s stint as a house painter, he earned his living as a whitewasher, and later, after relocating to South Africa to escape the Nazis, had to take up house painting once again. http://www.weimarberlin.com/2020/05/hanns-katz-expressionist-painter-in.html