John Ashbery
1975
34 x 30 in. (86.4 x 76.2 cm)
Elaine de Kooning
United States
(1920 - 1989, Southampton, NY)
Object Type:
Painting
Medium and Support:
Oil on board
Credit Line:
Marion Stratton Gould Fund
Accession Number:
1999.3
Location: Not currently on view
The poet John Ashbery and the painter Elaine de Kooning were both members of a group of innovative New York artists that included Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and de Kooning’s husband Willem. Like those of her contemporaries, de Kooning’s aesthetic interests had shifted from traditional representational styles toward the radically new artistic development of Abstract Expressionism. However, the human—and particularly the male—figure still intrigued her; during the 1970s she painted several portraits of friends, including this one of Ashbery.
[Forman Gallery, Summer 2015]