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Lot Essay
In 1961, Willem de Kooning moved from New York City to East Hampton, a shift that would profoundly change the artist's style. Relocating from the cramped, gritty metropolis to the tranquil coastal town, de Kooning left behind the insecurity of man depicted in earlier works and began painting floating figures that reflected the artist's physical liberation experienced in the countryside.
Representing a dynamic synthesis between figure and background, Wading Man expresses a shift in the artist's perception of the place of man in nature. In the present painting, the artist's new perspective of people and their surroundings is emphasized by vigorous brushstrokes of blue and green, which delineate a sensual merging of the body with the eddying water. Through his use of diffuse patches of white-highlighted pinks, the work reflects the shimmering light on the ocean water that blurs the distinction between figure and environment. In the dissolved shape of a free-floating being commingling with aquatic swirls, Wading Man suggests de Kooning's reconciliation with nature.
Fig. 1 Pablo Picasso, La Pisseuse, 1965, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
Representing a dynamic synthesis between figure and background, Wading Man expresses a shift in the artist's perception of the place of man in nature. In the present painting, the artist's new perspective of people and their surroundings is emphasized by vigorous brushstrokes of blue and green, which delineate a sensual merging of the body with the eddying water. Through his use of diffuse patches of white-highlighted pinks, the work reflects the shimmering light on the ocean water that blurs the distinction between figure and environment. In the dissolved shape of a free-floating being commingling with aquatic swirls, Wading Man suggests de Kooning's reconciliation with nature.
Fig. 1 Pablo Picasso, La Pisseuse, 1965, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris