Willem De Kooning
Dutch-American abstract expressionist artist, 1904-1997
"De Kooning was born in Rotterdam and moved to the United States in 1926, becoming an American citizen in 1962. In 1943, he married painter Elaine Fried. In the years after World War II, he painted in a style that came to be referred to as abstract expressionism or ""action painting"", and was part of a group of artists that came to be known as the New York School. Other painters in this group included Jackson Pollock, Elaine de Kooning, Mark Rothko, Hans Hofmann, Nell Blaine, Adolph Gottlieb, Anne Ryan, Robert Motherwell, Clyfford Still, and Richard Pousette-Dart. De Kooning's retrospective held at MoMa in 2011–2012, made him one of the most well known artists of the 20th century."
Source:
Dutch-American artist (1904-1997). Autograph letter signed. East Hampton, NY. Large 4to. ¾ p. With autograph envelope.
$ 3,197 / 3.000 €
(72703/BN46705)
To Greenwich Village bohemian Helen Elliott: "I did not see Hans Namuth this week-end, ... and I would not want to loose [!] the chance ... I mean not to be in your book, ... I would certainly regret it alright ... With names, with people like Camus, Dostoyesky [!] W. C. Fields ... It is very nice of you to remember me, ... and it will be nice to see you again [...]". - Helen Elliott (1925-1990) is best known for her love affair with Lucien Carr and friendships with Jack Kerouac and Alan Ginsberg.
She has been identified as the characters Ruth Erickson in Kerouac's "Desolation Angels" and Eileen Weber in the expanded edition of his "Book of Dreams". - German-born American photographer Hans Namuth (1915-1990) was known for his portraits of architects and artists, notably a series of photographs depicting Jackson Pollock at work in his Long Island studio, which are reputed to have precipitated a change in Pollock’s artistic style. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Namuth photographed de Kooning and his work, most notably, his "Reclining Man", and chronicled his studio’s construction in Long Island’s East Hampton artist colony. - Written in blue ink on a folded sheet of lined yellow legal notepaper..