Elaine de Kooning

Elaine de Kooning was born in Brooklyn, NY on March 12, 1918 as Elaine Fried. In 1937, she studied at Leonardo da Vinci Art School, NY. The following year, she attended drawing classes taught by her future husband, Willem de Kooning (1943-1957). Works from her early career are influenced by Cubism. She is known for her later abstract paintings of the 1940s-1960s, including work commissioned by a Missouri library in 1962 to paint a portrait of President JFK. In 1940, she began writing art criticism and worked towards making the genre of Abstract Expressionism more available to the public. At BMC in 1948, she played the title role of “The Ruse of the Medusa,” as well as designed the sets with fellow artists such as John Cage and Merce Cunningham. The artist died in February of 1989. Her husband and Elaine worked together for many years to create a range of works in different mediums including paint and photographic processed work. Elaine de Kooning has had work shown at the Museum of Modern Art, NY as well as the Guggenheim Museum.