Page 65 - Studio International - May 1969

the canvas. Now the leg and arm travel on the recent paintings, notes that lately
before our very eyes, in what de Kooning has de Kooning had been reading a book about
rightly called a hilarious manner. Looking molecules and was cheered to find that no
close, everything looks strange. His close look scientist today would claim to know the
at the surface of women has given him a new number of components in the atom. He was
morphology for which he has modified his also delighted, Hess reports, to learn that
technique. The staccato respiration of his atoms slip around a lot. 'A molecule of white
forms demands the bright profusion of colour paint on his studio wall, for instance, could be
and stroke that his detractors find weakening a molecule of bread, with the loss of a par-
to his style. They simply have not learned to ticle so vague that it is practically meta-
see his feel, or feel his see. physical.'
Both Pollock and de Kooning emerged in I don't think we need to lean on parallels of
maturity at a time when the notion of trans- science and painting to establish that both
formation was well publicized by the sur- Pollock and de Kooning envisioned formal
realists. But there were also other notions changes that, in the metaphysical way Hess
indicating the cultural consonance of their suggests, change painting from one thing to
painting styles. For instance, it was just about another. Moreover, I believe that these
4
Willem de Kooning Suburb in Havana 1958 then—the early 1950s—when popularized changes in conception of painting morpho-
oil on canvas, 80 x 70 in.
Coll: Mr Eabshee V. Eastman, New York articles and books appeared putting forward logy will continue to inform contemporary
the findings of `biotechnics'. This new science, painters, regardless of the critics who are
5
Jackson Pollock Number 11 1951 which has lost a lot of ground since, sup- unable to shift their habits of vision and learn
Duco on canvas, 57½ x 138⅝ in.
ported the metamorphic discoveries that the other ways of apprehending form.
6
Jackson Pollock Number 14 1951 finally, in the case of both de Kooning and
Duco on canvas 57⅞ x 105⅞ in. Pollock, brought about a new conception of
7 form for each. It is interesting to me that
Willem de Kooning Figure of a woman II 1968
oil on paper, mounted on canvas, 23¾ x 18¾ in. Thomas B. Hess, in his new and good book