Lot Essay
The years immediately following World War II were a crucial time in the development of the art of Willem de Kooning. Having spent the early 1940s experimenting with a fusion of Cubist structure and Surrealist automatism in his painting, de Kooning's technique evolved into a method of controlled accident in a series of figurative/abstract paintings done between 1946 and 1950. Marked by masterful invention of forms and rhythmic cadences of line, they would come to be seen as the first flowering of his mature style.
In Mailbox, fluid black lines delineate biomorphic shapes, with luxuriant shades of pinks and ochres (reminiscent of his earlier masterpiece, Pink Angels, 1945) glowing from beneath the lush and richly textured surfaces. The shapes exist in constant flux between known and invented forms, between figuration and abstraction. One senses, more than identifies, the round full curve of a breast, the jagged edge of a wicked grin and the dancing lines of a mailbox. Rectangles become boxes, complex curves become hands--and then dissolve into the overall unity of the composition. In a complex interweaving of space, amorphous forms move back and forth, now dominating, now receding. This ambiguity of figure and ground left traditional approaches to painting far behind and marked de Kooning as one of the most important painters of his time.
Mailbox was one of ten paintings chosen for de Kooning's inaugural New York exhibition at Charles Egan's Gallery in 1948. Other masterpieces from that show include Black Friday (collection of Princeton Art Museum), Painting, 1948 and Valentine (both collection of The Museum of Modern Art, New York), and Zurich (collection of the Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.). While several of these paintings were mostly black and white, such as Painting, 1948, the show 'also featured the luminous white and pink Mailbox' (M. Prather, Willem de Kooning Paintings, Washington, D.C. 1994, p. 96).
Later that year, Mailbox was selected to be the first painting by de Kooning in a Whitney Annual, and Clement Greenberg cited it as the finest painting in the show in his review in The Nation. Along with Excavation, 1950, Light in August, 1946 and Dark Pond, 1948, Mailbox was selected by Alfred H. Barr, Jr., the pioneering director of The Museum of Modern Art, for inclusion in the Venice Biennale of 1950, which was de Kooning's first exposure to a European audience.
In Mailbox, fluid black lines delineate biomorphic shapes, with luxuriant shades of pinks and ochres (reminiscent of his earlier masterpiece, Pink Angels, 1945) glowing from beneath the lush and richly textured surfaces. The shapes exist in constant flux between known and invented forms, between figuration and abstraction. One senses, more than identifies, the round full curve of a breast, the jagged edge of a wicked grin and the dancing lines of a mailbox. Rectangles become boxes, complex curves become hands--and then dissolve into the overall unity of the composition. In a complex interweaving of space, amorphous forms move back and forth, now dominating, now receding. This ambiguity of figure and ground left traditional approaches to painting far behind and marked de Kooning as one of the most important painters of his time.
Mailbox was one of ten paintings chosen for de Kooning's inaugural New York exhibition at Charles Egan's Gallery in 1948. Other masterpieces from that show include Black Friday (collection of Princeton Art Museum), Painting, 1948 and Valentine (both collection of The Museum of Modern Art, New York), and Zurich (collection of the Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.). While several of these paintings were mostly black and white, such as Painting, 1948, the show 'also featured the luminous white and pink Mailbox' (M. Prather, Willem de Kooning Paintings, Washington, D.C. 1994, p. 96).
Later that year, Mailbox was selected to be the first painting by de Kooning in a Whitney Annual, and Clement Greenberg cited it as the finest painting in the show in his review in The Nation. Along with Excavation, 1950, Light in August, 1946 and Dark Pond, 1948, Mailbox was selected by Alfred H. Barr, Jr., the pioneering director of The Museum of Modern Art, for inclusion in the Venice Biennale of 1950, which was de Kooning's first exposure to a European audience.