Review by Choice Review
Curtis's biography of Elaine de Kooning (1918-89) takes the reader on a fascinating journey to get to know the 20th-century artist and critic for ARTnews, a woman who was an articulate spokesperson for the abstract expressionist movement. An art history scholar, Curtis charts de Kooning's precocious interest in art, her childhood in New York City, and her first encounter with the painter whom she would consider her greatest influence, Dutch-born Willem de Kooning. Narrating the de Koonings' life in New York City, Black Mountain College, Provincetown, and the Hamptons--and Elaine's many varied teaching positions in the US and abroad--Curtis illuminates the extraordinary breadth of the couple's artistic circles. Elaine's talent is given its own well-deserved spotlight as she refuses to be dominated by the forceful male artists, critics, and musicians of the mid-20th century. As a painter she combined the gestural nature of abstract expressionism with a strong sense of dynamism and of the human figure--recording the energy and vitality of sportsmen, fellow artists, and, famously, John F. Kennedy. Including archival photographs and color reproductions of de Kooning's work, this insightful biography is an exhilarating read. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers. --Catherine Jane Jolivette, Missouri State University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by New York Times Review
Elaine de Kooning was a big personality. A minister she once met while traveling told her, "Being married to you must be like being married to 20 women." As a native Brooklynite who attended Erasmus Hall High School and was inspired by titanic women like the track Olympian Babe Didrikson, she painted, she wrote about art - and, although estranged from him for many years, was married to the famous gestural abstract painter Willem de Kooning. Separating her life from this last fact is part of the work of Curtis's biography: How to show the "creative life" of Elaine de Kooning, without making her a mere accessory to the company she kept? She was not as consistent a painter as some of her associates, but she possessed talent and boldness (some of it alcohol-fueled; she got sober in the 1970s with the help of Alcoholics Anonymous). De Kooning's greatest achievements as an artist are her figurative paintings, including the "faceless men" series from the 1950s and an official 1963 portrait of John F. Kennedy that was unveiled in 1965, a year and a half after he was assassinated. She was also a gifted writer, using expertise learned as a painter and personal knowledge of art and artists to analyze and explain the work of others. Like many prominent women of her generation, de Kooning didn't identify as a feminist, even pushing back against Linda Nochlin's famous feminist essay from 1971, "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?" And yet de Kooning served as a role model for women by circulating within the elite New York art world and demanding access to institutions like the Club, the unofficial art school and salon. Perhaps most important in examining a creative life and career like this one is seeing how art is made in communities, rather than by isolated artists in garrets (or studios on 10th Street in Greenwich Village). Biographies like Curtis's offer a corrective to art history and the art market, which too often focus on mythical art stars and singular "geniuses." Friends, lovers and associates can contribute equally to making, explaining and preserving artists' work and their legacies.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [January 21, 2018]
Review by Booklist Review
Meticulous and captivating biographer Curtis continues her quest to fully illuminate the lives and work of underappreciated women artists, following her portrait of painter Grace Hartigan in Restless Ambition (2015) with this vivid and clarifying chronicle of Elaine de Kooning. Though most often considered in conjunction with her famous artist husband, Willem de Kooning, despite the fact that, while they remained married for decades, they spent very little time together, Elaine is dazzling in her own right as an inquisitive and bold painter and an incisive arts writer. Brilliant, empathetic, vivacious, witty, fearless, and utterly unconventional, she worked constantly, knew everyone in the New York art world, taught as a visiting artist across the country, threw rollicking parties, drank and smoked to excess (she quit the former but died from the latter), was cavalier about money, and inspired and helped many. Elaine loved language and color, embraced the challenge of depicting bodies in motion, and painted dynamic portraits, most famously of JFK. Curtis chronicles Elaine's diverse accomplishments and channels her radiant spirit and vibrant genius to indelible effect.--Seaman, Donna Copyright 2017 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
