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Student Union Collection |
Elaine
de Kooning
American, 1920-1989
Portrait
of Eddie #2, 1961
oil on masonite board
13” x 9”
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Portrait of Eddie #2 is one of many portraits
that Elaine de Kooning completed during her life. It is a portrait
of Edwin Denby (1908-1983), a famous ballet critic, dancer, and
poet. Denby and de Kooning met in 1938; they remained close for
the rest of her career. De Kooning was the wife of fellow Abstract
Expressionist Willem de Kooning. She is remembered for her work
as an art critic as much as for her work as an artist. Portraits
were a very important part of De Kooning’s oeuvre, though
she never considered them to be a principal mission in her work
as a painter. Despite these feelings, she dedicated the same
amount of energy to her portraits as she did her other work.
When De Kooning was painting portraits she worked on multiple
canvases at the same time, producing at least three versions
of the same portrait.
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