Alaattin Turyan Turyan itibaren Barforth, County Durham, Jungtinė Karalystė
This is a brilliant biography. I only read it because I thought de Kooning was like a lesser Pollack but there wasn't a hefty definitive Pollack bio lying about at my boyfriend's parents' house, and this one was. But Mark Stevens writes the most readable, intriguing portrait of de Kooning, making you realize that there is so much more to this abstract painter. For one, he was a totally skilled draftsman. He just shifted to abstract expressionism and, late in life, sculpture. I think that it's so cool that he was trained but bucked against it, that he was friends with Arshile Gorky (and never quite got over his suicide), that he had such a long marriage with a woman who kind of sucked as a wife (he, of course, sucked as a husband). And then there's the painting. Whenever I need a moment to think, I catch the 145 bus down to the Art Institute and sit in front of "Excavation" for a few minutes or a few hours. I could stare at that painting forever and never understand it. Yay, de Kooning.