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In 1953, Woman, a series of abstract works of art painted by Willem de Kooning, shocked the public who visited de Kooning’s third one-man show at the Sidney Janis Gallery in Manhattan. The last painting of this series, Woman VI, is displayed at the Carnegie Museum of Art as part of the Postwar Abstraction collection since the 1955 Carnegie International Exhibition. Willem de Kooning is a pioneer of Abstract Expressionism in America. Having this painting in the museum provides visitors with a good example of contemporary art’s transition from European traditional painting to Abstract Expressionism; Woman is considered de Kooning’s most famous series because it is significant to postwar history and social events, such as the American Feminist Movement in 1960s; de Kooning has a ventured impact on the issue of the representation of woman during 1950s through the abstract form; and, above all, Woman VI is an irreplaceable work of art for the Postwar Abstraction collection not only for its abstract form and brushwork techniques but because it still has the ability to create multiple interpretations with each viewing.

Historical Context
As decolonization spread throughout the globe, the cold war powers offered competing models for economic and political modernization, as well as models for the art world. The reasons why Abstract Expressionism took place in the 1950s are still a matter of debate. However, the political limitation was one of the definite reasons. After World War II, the political climate did not tolerate the social pretests of these painters any more. The McCarthy era after World War II was a time of artistic censorship in the United States, but, if the subject matter were totally abstract, then it would be seen as apolitical, and, therefore, safe. The wartime shifted the artists’ perspectives of the art world from representational, single-style painting to an abstract, combination of multiple styles painting. For example, Thomas B. Hess, the managing editor of ARTnews, points out about de Kooning’s works that "…Similar themes of Pompeian color - blue, pink, ocher, alluding to the Boscoreale frescoes in the Metropolitan as well as to the Broadway neon - similar hooking forms and flickering contours, tie the works so closely together that the whole idea of a ‘breakthrough’ seems a bit juvenile - like an advertising agency’s gimmick to sell History." Boscoreale frescoes used to be an important painting technique in Roman. Hess is explaining that Abstract Expressionism is a “breakthrough” because it is a style that combines with both European art colors and American abstract forms. Considering de Kooning’s Dutch background, his paintings actually combined with more than three styles. De Kooning is an important artist to the museum because he brought his craft a rigorous European academic training and close familiarity with the past art of past that set him apart from many of his American contemporaries.

Artist
De Kooning (1904 – 1997) was a Dutch-born American painter. His exceptional talent was discovered by Jaap Gidding; he decided to enroll de Kooning as a night student at the Rotterdam Academy of Fine Arts and Techniques, where he remained for eight years. The Dutch system of integrating fine and applied arts imbued in de Kooning a respect for tradition and craft that remained fundamental for his work. De Kooning’s painting contains enormous details, which allowed the viewers take time to absorb. De Kooning as painter who knows the value of history, sought to understand the recent history of paintings thoroughly. In the post-World War II era, de Kooning painted in an Abstract Expressionist style, also know as Action painting, whose painterly gesturalism transcended the conventional definitions of figuration and abstraction, and he substantially influenced art after World War II, becoming one of a group of artists that came to be known as the New York School. Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline, as well as Arshile Gorky are also regard as members of the New York avant-garde, with de Kooning championed as the leader of the movement.

Visual Analysis
Woman VI is a life-sized painting. A woman figure stands in the center of the painting, the proportion of the figure on the painting is two thirds. There are lots of abstract expressionist elements in the painting, such as the composition, space, line, and color.

By combining simple geometric shapes, De Kooning has created a powerfully dramatic composition. He used geometric shapes, such as triangle, square, and circle, to build the female figure. The erased head has two circle eyes. The body has irregular shape of arms and chest, and both arms are broke into two parts. This figure does not have hands or feet. There is only three fourths of the body, and the painting stops at the knee. Even the background was made by geometric shapes: a triangle shape near the right side of her head, and a rectangle near her left body. These shapes generate a tension of opposition and harmony and produce a unique sense of balance. It is not a symmetrical composition, but either side looks quite balanced. This is because the main figure is on the vertical axis, and the horizontal axis goes through her abdomen. It is a two-dimensional painting, for there is no illusion of depth and the canvas is all surface. Each part of the composition conveys a sense of unity. The emphasis of motif, which is woman, was achieved through the position and large scale.

Abstract Expressionism
Woman VI is placing in the Postwar Abstraction collection in the Carnegie Museum of Art. This painting along with the collection are considering an important part of American art history. The history of Abstract Expressionism is tied closely to the history of post–World War II because it was an art movement that began in the 1940s. During and after World War II, as the center of international power moved to America, expressing itself most directly in New York city, a new art was born. In 1946, Robert Coates, the critic for the New Yorker, applied the term “Abstract Expressionism” to the work of certain of these New York-based painters, like de Kooning.

Technique
Willem de Kooning’s woman VI is an oil painting on canvas. The combination of oil and canvas help to contribute to the power and theme of the painting. There are lots of reasons that de Kooning chose oil painting. First, Woman VI is a large-scale painting, and the oil allows artists to have more time to finish it because of its slow drying time. The oil can also be left open for long periods of time, and in fact, they need to expose it to air for several weeks for drying. However, some artists would see this as a disadvantage of the oil painting. De Kooning used it as an advantage in his painting. This characteristic makes it possible for him to work on this painting over several sessions without fear of the paint drying up too early, and it is easy to make changes to the finished part. Second, the oil can be applied to give a wide range of textural effects. Furthermore, oil paint could produce the finest clarity of color, because of de Kooning once said: “Indescribable tones, almost. I started working with them and insisted that they would give me the kind of light I wanted.” Oil can change the sense of the painting by the light around the painting. Oil painting has a long history; the earliest reference to mixing oil with pigment to make paint was not until the 12th century.