Elaine De Kooning - One of the Ninth Street Women

 

Self portrait of Elaine De Kooning in 1946

Here sits Elaine De Kooning in two self portraits, painted when she was 26 years old. She was the brilliant, talented, energetic and beautiful artist who was the emotional center of a group of creative spirits known as the "New York School."  These were a close knit group of artists, poets, dancers and musicians who lived in lower Manhattan in the 1940s, 50s and 60s.

I've recently been introduced to her in the engrossing book Ninth Street Women by Mary Gabriel. The Berkeley Public Library site offers this summary:

"The rich, revealing, and thrilling story of five women whose lives and painting propelled a revolution in modern art, from the National Book Award finalist. Set amid the most turbulent social and political period of modern times, Ninth Street Women is the impassioned, wild, sometimes tragic, always exhilarating chronicle of five women who dared to enter the male-dominated world of twentieth-century abstract painting--not as muses but as artists. From their cold-water lofts, where they worked, drank, fought, and loved, these pioneers burst open the door to the art world for themselves and countless others to come."

Among the five women artists discussed in the book (De Kooning, Lee Krasner, Helen Frankenthaler, Grace Hartigan and Joan Mitchel), it feels like there is a disproportionate amount of space devoted to Elaine De Kooning, probably because she had the most dynamic personality and the most exciting life. Besides working as an abstract expressionist, she started painting self portraits in the '40s and then went on to become a talented portraitist. Her most famous subject was John F. Kennedy, who sat for her in Palm Beach.  As an ardent liberal, she was captivated by JFK and painted numerous works of him, as seen in her studio below.

                   A clearer detail from the large painting above. She's still on the ladder painting JFK

Such a fascinating person deserves a more detailed rendering, so I would recommend checking out her bio HERE or better still, reading the book Ninth Street Women.