Photo: Willem de Kooning in his studio, 831 Broadway, New York, 1962 © Dan Budnik, All Rights Reserved
Kooning, Willem de
Rotterdam, 1904 | East Hampton, New York1997
19
04
Born in Rotterdam, Netherlands, on April 24.
16
Drops out of school to enroll as an apprentice in a craftwork and decoration firm in Rotterdam.
17
Attends evening classes at the Academie van Beeldende Kunsten en Technische Wetenschappen (Academy of Fine Arts and Applied Sciences), later renamed the Willem de Kooning Academie, until 1925.
26
Travels to the United States, where lives in Hoboken, New Jersey, USA, and finds work as a house painter.
27
Moves to Manhattan, New York City, where he meets some of the modernist artists active in New York: Stuart Davis, Arshile Gorky, and John Graham, among others.
34
Joins the Artist’s Union.
35
Is employed in the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) to design a number of murals.
Meets critic Harold Rosenberg.
One of his works is included in New Horizons in American Art at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. It is his first group show.
38
Meets Elaine Fried, introduced to him by Robert Jonas.
40
Designs the sets and costumes for the ballet Les nuages, performed by the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York.
42
Takes part in the exhibition American and French Painters at Macmillan Inc. in New York. Meets Jackson Pollock and Marcel Duchamp.
43
Marries Elaine Fried in an intimate ceremony.
45
Is evicted from his apartment on 22nd Street. Moves to Carmine Street in Greenwich Village. He and Elaine rent studios on opposite corners.
46
Begins work on the series Black-and-White Abstractions.
48
His first solo exhibitions opens at Charles Egan Gallery in New York.
Invited by Josef Albers, teaches summer school at Black Mountain College in North Carolina, USA. Elaine takes courses with Albers, Buckminster Fuller, and Merce Cunningham.
50
Presents the painting Excavation at the XXV Biennale di Venezia.
51
Writes the essay “What Abstract Art Means to Me.” The Art Institute of Chicago awards de Kooning the Logan Medal and Purchase Prize for his work Excavation.
53
Holds a solo show at Sidney Janis Gallery in New York.
54
Takes part in the 27th Venice Biennale.
56
Has a daughter as a result of his affair with designer Joan Ward, leading to his estrangement from Elaine Fried. They never get divorced, though.
59
His work is part of II. documenta, a quinquennial contemporary art exhibition held in Kassel, Germany.
60
Creates his first lithographs.
62
Becomes an American citizen.
Holds a joint exhibition with Barnett Newman at Allan Stone Gallery in New York.
63
Moves to East Hampton, New York.
64
Receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civil award given by the U.S. government.
Participates in documenta III in Kassel, Germany.
65
The first retrospective exhibition of de Kooning’s work is held at the Smith College Museum of Art in Northampton, USA.
68
The Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam holds a retrospective of de Kooning’s work, for which he travels to the Netherlands for the first time since 1926. The exhibition later travels to the Tate Gallery in London, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Meets Francis Bacon in London.
69
Creates his first sculptures, formed of clay and cast in bronze, at a foundry in Rome.
71
De Kooning’s lithographs are displayed at M. Knoedler et Cie in Paris.
72
The Baltimore Museum of Art organizes the first exhibition of de Kooning’s sculptures.
74
The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, USA, presents a major exhibition of de Kooning’s sculptures and drawings, which then travels to other museums in the United States.
75
The American Academy of Arts and Letters awards de Kooning the Gold Medal for Painting.
78
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York hosts a major exhibition of de Kooning’s recent works.
79
Is awarded the Andrew W. Mellon Prize, which he shares with Eduardo Chillida. The award is accompanied by an exhibition of his work at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, USA.
Is named officer of the Order of Orange-Nassau by the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
82
Exhibits his latest work at the Xavier Fourcade Gallery in New York. Elected a member of the Akademie der Künste inBerlin.
83
Willem de Kooning: The North Atlantic Light, 1960–1983 is presented at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and then travels to several other museums in Europe.
The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York organizes a major retrospective of de Kooning’s drawings, paintings, and sculptures that travels to the Akademie der
84
Anthony d’Offay Gallery in London holds an exhibition of de Kooning’s paintings and sculptures. Receives the Kaiserring prize from the city of Goslar, Germany.
86
Receives the National Medal of Arts from the U.S. government.
87
Gagosian Gallery in New York exhibits a selection of de Kooning’s Abstract Landscapes.
93
The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, in Washington, D.C., organizes a major retrospective of de Kooning’s work, which then travels to Barcelona, Spain; Atlanta, USA; and Boston, USA.
94
The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., stages an exhibition of de Kooning’s work that then travels to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Tate Gallery in London.
95
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA, San Francisco, USA) holds a retrospective of de Kooning’s paintings from the 1980s. It then travels to Minneapolis, USA; Bonn, Germany; Rotterdam, Netherlands; and New York.
97
Dies in his home in East Hampton on March 19.
