Date: 22 Mar 97 19:11:27 EST
From: "Jennifer  M. de Coste" <76171.535-AT-CompuServe.COM>
Subject: De Kooning


Timothy,
	Of all the artists conveniently lumped together in what is historically
called Abstract Expressionism, De Kooning is one of two that has especially
intrigued me - the other one being Robert Motherwell.  I exclude Gorky and Matta
for what to me are obvious reasons.  Perhaps my interest in these two might be
summarized as being an interest in their connection to surrealism, although I
sincerely appreciate what I've read, as far as their own statements and such.
De Kooning struck me as the great internal critic of AbsExp.  In an ongoing
study in which I develop a thesis regarding surrealism in music, I investigate
the contradictory nature of the stubborn 'subjectivity' of some exponents of
AbsExp - specifically Malevich (who I later link as being greatly similar,
however much from an opposite perspective, to John Cage, as far as this notion
of purely nonobjective - or in Cage's case, objective - 'art').  I found,
ironically, De Kooning to be a great challenge to Malevich's 'suprematism,' and
ultimately, ended up wondering Is De Kooning an abstractionist?  Formally,
perhaps.  Stylistically, perhaps.  Philosophically....?  I especially
appreciated his critique of that art which truly, much like Malevich, sought
after making art 'measurable.'  De Kooning declared his painting to be "a way of
living, a style of living....that is where the form of it lies."  I want to
invite surrealism into this notion, and subsequently find amazement that
surrealism is so often historically tied, quite strictly, to Romanticism
(however much the latter would be considered 'an influence').  At any rate - De
Kooning, a great loss but a marvellous life.

Michael Szekely