Willem de Kooning (1904–1997) was a Dutch-American abstract expressionist painter of the New York School. Renowned for his energetic brushwork and vivid formal arrangements, de Kooning’s work included many phases, but his abstract expressionist canvases are perhaps his best-known. He moved towards themes of the human form and the landscape, often merging abstract and figural elements in his work. His “Women” series, in which he portrayed women in twisted, monstrous, expressive takes, received both praise and controversy. De Kooning earned widespread acclaim throughout his career, showing internationally and inspiring generations of artists after him. His abstract expressionism and innovative painting methods make him one of the 20th century’s most admirable artists.
The words of de Kooning express this innovative approach to art and highlight how his theories prioritize intuition, emotion, and exploration. His words encourage artists not to be perfect and to follow their creative impulses without fear.
1. “I have to change to stay the same.”
— Willem De Kooning
2. “The trouble with being poor is that it takes up all your time.”
— Willem De Kooning
3. “The past does not influence me; I influence it.”
— Willem De Kooning
4. “The texture of experience is prior to everything else.”
— Willem De Kooning
5. “Style is a fraud. I always felt the Greeks were hiding behind their columns.”
— Willem De Kooning
6. “Content is a glimpse of something, an encounter like a flash. It’s very tiny – very tiny. Content.”
— Willem De Kooning
7. “Even abstract shapes must have a likeness.”
— Willem De Kooning
8. “The artist fills space with an attitude. The attitude never comes from himself alone.”
— Willem De Kooning
9. “I think I’m painting a picture of two women but it may turn out to be a landscape.”
— Willem De Kooning
10. “Maybe in that earlier phase I was painting the woman in me. Art isn’t a wholly masculine occupation, you know.”
— Willem De Kooning
11. “I’d like to get all the colors in the world into one painting.”
— Willem De Kooning
12. “I’m not interested in ‘abstracting’ or taking things out or reducing painting to design, form, line, and color. I paint this way because I can keep putting more things in it – drama, anger, pain, love, a figure, a horse, my ideas about space. Through your eyes it again becomes an emotion or idea.”
— Willem De Kooning
13. “Not even for a million dollars would I paint a tree.”
— Willem De Kooning
14. “Flesh was the reason why oil painting was invented.”
— Willem De Kooning
15. “Every so often, a painter has to destroy painting. Cezanne did it, Picasso did it with Cubism. Then Pollock did it. He busted our idea of a picture all to hell. Then there could be new paintings again.”
— Willem De Kooning
16. “In art, one idea is as good as another. If one takes the idea of trembling, for instance, all of a sudden most art starts to tremble. Michelangelo starts to tremble. El Greco starts to tremble. All the Impressionists start to tremble.”
— Willem De Kooning
17. “The drawings that interest me most are made with closed eyes. With eyes closed, I feel my hand slide down on the paper. I have an image in mind, but the results always surprise me.”
— Willem De Kooning
18. “I paint the way I do because I can keep on putting more and more things in – like drama, pain, anger, love, a figure, a horse, my ideas of space. It doesn’t matter if it differs from mine, as long as it comes from the painting, which has its own integrity and intensity.”
— Willem De Kooning
19. “If I stretch my arms and wonder where my fingers are – that is all the space I need as a painter.”
— Willem De Kooning
20. “Watercolors is the first and the last thing an artist does.”
— Willem De Kooning
21. “You have to keep on the very edge of something, all the time, or the picture dies.”
— Willem De Kooning
22. “Content is a glimpse.”
— Willem De Kooning
23. “An artist is forced by others to paint out of his own free will.”
— Willem De Kooning
24. “I don’t paint to live, I live to paint.”
— Willem De Kooning
25. “If you pick up some paint with your brush and make somebody’s nose with it, this is rather ridiculous when you think of it, theoretically or philosophically. It’s really absurd to make an image, like a human image, with paint, today.”
— Willem De Kooning
26. “My interest in desperation lies only in that sometimes I find myself having become desperate. Very seldom do I start out that way. I can see of course that, in the abstract, thinking and all activity is rather desperate.”
— Willem De Kooning
27. “What you do when you paint, you take a brush full of paint, get paint on the picture, and you have faith.”
— Willem De Kooning
28. “And then there is that one-man movement, Marcel Duchamp for me a truly modern movement because it implies that each artist can do what he thinks he ought to a movement for each person and open for everybody.”
— Willem De Kooning
29. “The attitude that nature is chaotic and that the artist puts order into it is a very absurd point of view, I think. All that we can hope for is to put some order into ourselves.”
— Willem De Kooning
30. “Man’s own form in space – his body – was a private prison; and that it was because of this imprisoning misery – because he was hungry and overworked and went to a horrid place called home late at night in the rain, and his bones ached and his head was heavy.”
— Willem De Kooning
31. “If you’re an artist, the problem is to make a picture work whether you are happy or not.”
— Willem De Kooning
32. “I feel sometimes an American artist must feel, like a baseball player or something – a member of a team writing American history…”
— Willem De Kooning
33. “Yes, I am influenced by everbody. But every time I put my hands in my pockets I find someone else’s fingers there.”
— Willem De Kooning
34. “Whatever an artist’s personal feelings are, as soon as an artist fills a certain area on the canvas or circumscribes it, he becomes historical. He acts from or upon other artists.”
— Willem De Kooning
35. “In art one idea is as good as another.”
— Willem De Kooning
36. “Once, after finishing a picture, I thought I would stop for awhile, take a trip, do things-the next time I thought of this, I found five years had gone by.”
— Willem De Kooning
37. “I might work on a painting for a month, but it has too look like I painted it in a minute.”
— Willem De Kooning
38. “The idea of space is given to the artist to change if he can. The subject matter in the abstract is space.”
— Willem De Kooning
39. “I read somewhere that Rubens said students should not draw from life, but draw from all the great classic casts. Then you really get the measure of them, you really know what to do. And then, put in your own dimples. Isn’t that marvelous!”
— Willem De Kooning
40. “Art never seems to make me peaceful or pure.”
— Willem De Kooning
41. “I make pictures and someone comes in and calls it art.”
— Willem De Kooning
De Kooning’s wisdom urges artists to embrace their feelings, experiment, and challenge the status quo of the art world. His written and spoken words guide and spark inspiring thinking to align our work to our real selves.
The following quotes by Willem De Kooning provide insight into the thoughts of one of the most significant artists of the twentieth century. His words remind us to embrace the messiness of creativity and to start out as an artist.
Who was Willem De Kooning?
Willem De Kooning, Dutch-American painter and principal mover of Abstract Expressionist movement.
Why do his quotes matter?
They also contained deep insight into the artistic process and the philosophy of creativity.
Where can I see De Kooning’s works?
His paintings hang at major museums, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Art Institute of Chicago.
Aaron Cohen is an American journalist, author, and human rights activist. She has published in… Read More
Aaron Carter (1987–2022) was an American singer, actor, and dancer who gained fame in the… Read More
A. E. Coppard (January 4, 1878 – January 13, 1957) was an English writer celebrated… Read More
A. E. Hotchner, born on June 28, 1920, was an American author, playwright, and editor… Read More
Born on March 26, 1859, in Fockbury, Worcestershire, England, Alfred Edward Housman was the oldest… Read More
Aaron Bruno, born on November 11, 1978, is an American musician, songwriter, and producer, best… Read More