Portrait in a Minute: Elaine de Kooning

Brandon Fortune, Chief Curator at the National Portrait Gallery discusses Elaine de Kooning.
Elaine de Kooning’s gestural portraits of friends and family were much admired during her lifetime, and included such well-known Americans as poets Frank O’Hara and Allen Ginsberg, critic Harold Rosenberg, choreographer Merce Cunningham and painters Willem de Kooning and Fairfield Porter. De Kooning made both abstract and figurative paintings and drawings during the height of Abstract Expressionism in New York City. She is best known for her portrayals of men-Porter once commented that de Kooning’s images of men were “both sympathetic and frighteningly acute.” In her portraits, de Kooning sought and worked to capture the “instantaneous illumination” of recognition: What qualities beyond the attributes of the face make you recognize someone? She characterized her portraits of John F. Kennedy as “a glimpse” of the president through an accumulation of sketches and finished likenesses.

[@kristinamullen4066]

I never saw much of her work or knew she painted JFK.Thank you for your interesting info.I'm going to study her work now.😊

[@khalidmusadaq8988]

💓
I wish she did more sketches. My favorite artist to study after Sargent and Bacon.

[@sjmsutherland]

Thank you for this video, she is a fave artist of mine. It's good to see more of her work!!

[@BrianJosephMorgan]

Fascinating.

[@giulianaraffa9391]

Her gestural portrait of Willem, her husband, is enhancing only the few best bits of the man. Good on her. She knew her stuff.

[@greatquotesdaily4253]

Good piece of history.

[@chiarapoggi6408]

Bravissima ritrattista, sono veramente colpita .

[@StephenS-2024]

This is good coffee. Mmmm.

[@roldude]

This is over four minutes long.

[@danspringer12]

That wasn't a minute. Fail.