de Kooning: An American Master
Reviews
NY Times Book Review: An Important Book
“One of the great strengths of this book is its sense of an artist in his studio. At times the authors disappear, and we watch [de Kooning] apply paint, scrape it off and attack again, trace sections of a painting and pin them on other parts to see how they work, stare at pictures for hours, destroy canvases, fly into rages of frustration and fling furniture about. An important book.”
“One of the great strengths of this book is its sense of an artist in his studio. At times the authors disappear, and we watch [de Kooning] apply paint, scrape it off and attack again, trace sections of a painting and pin them on other parts to see how they work, stare at pictures for hours, destroy canvases, fly into rages of frustration and fling furniture about. An important book.”
Red Grooms. “When de Kooning Was King." The New York Times Book Review, December 12, 2004.
Newsweek: Great
“Not every great artist leads a fascinating life. De Kooning did. Stevens and Swan give him a great biography to prove it.”
“Not every great artist leads a fascinating life. De Kooning did. Stevens and Swan give him a great biography to prove it.”
Malcolm Jones. “De-lovely De Kooning.” Newsweek, November 21, 2004.
NY Times: Brilliant
“Brilliant, sweeping, authoritative…The elusiveness of its subject makes the achievements of de Kooning: An American Master that much more dazzling. This is a book that traces de Kooning’s history, puts him on Freud’s couch, plumbs the mysteries of his cryptic and ever-changing work and follows the arc of modern art through much of the twentieth century, fusing all these elements into a remarkably lucid narrative. Most unusually, it explores the details of a messy personal life without compromising its subject’s dignity.”
“Brilliant, sweeping, authoritative…The elusiveness of its subject makes the achievements of de Kooning: An American Master that much more dazzling. This is a book that traces de Kooning’s history, puts him on Freud’s couch, plumbs the mysteries of his cryptic and ever-changing work and follows the arc of modern art through much of the twentieth century, fusing all these elements into a remarkably lucid narrative. Most unusually, it explores the details of a messy personal life without compromising its subject’s dignity.”
Janet Maslin. “Messy Life and Genius: The Portrait of an Artist.” The New York Times, November 8, 2004.