Willem de Kooning

Willem de Kooning was born in Rotterdam, Netherlands in 1904. At an early age, de Kooning expressed an interest in art and at the age of twelve he dropped out of school to further pursue this passion by accepting an apprenticeship with a commercial design company. In 1926, he stowed away on a ship to see what artistic opportunities were available in the US. The artist met his wife and future BMC peer Elaine de Kooning and in 1938, they married from 1943-1957. In 1948, de Kooning was invited by Josef Albers, one of BMC’s most well-known artist and teacher, to teach a summer painting class at BMC. While there, he pushed his own art by experimenting with different styles including “collage painting,” or combining several different mediums in a single piece. It was at BMC where he began his Abstract Expressionist works, of which he is most well-known. De Kooning has been the recipient of the Logan Medal and Purchase Prize from the Art Institute of Chicago and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964 as well as having work shown in the Museum of Modern Art, NY; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Tate Modern, London; and the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. De Kooning died in March of 1997.