Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Jazz piano music playing.
Our de Kooning ‘Woman’ painting was exhibited before it was purchased in 1954 by the Weatherspoon.
It was first exhibited to my knowledge at the Whitney annual in 1950, and the next year
in 1951 at a very important show called the Ninth Street Show. It was organized by Leo Castelli
who went on to represent a number of the artists in that exhibition. We don’t know if Greg
Ivy and John Opper actually knew de Kooning. What we do know is that Greg Ivy ran a summer
art school in Burnsville, North Carolina, which was not too far from Black Mountain. And we
do know that there was some exchange back and forth. Howard Thomas, who was on Women’s
College art department faculty for example, was friends with Joseph Alberts, who was at
Black Mountain. de Kooning in 1954 was becoming known. I wouldn’t say he was yet well known
even though he’d had some exhibitions, I think a solo show or two and was included
in some group exhibitions. But he still didn’t have the fame that came to him later. When
John Opper went to New York City in 1954, he did so to purchase a work of art in honor
of Lena Kernodle McDuffie, who was an art educator at Womans College and had passed
away. Whether he went intentionally to buy de Kooning or not, we just don’t know. I
think Greensboro’s appreciation for the de Kooning ‘Woman’ painting has changed
a lot. When it was first purchased in 1954 and brought back, an article in the newspaper,
and just, you know, commentary that how could they have spent the grant, some of $1,800
on this awful looking depiction of a woman. As history has proved it to be such an important
painting, I think Greensboro now takes pride in the fact that it’s lent to major exhibitions,
and has been published in numerous, numerous books on de Kooning's work. So I think now
we all consider it a treasure of UNCG and the greater Greensboro community. We lend
the de Kooning painting to other institutions because it is of such historic value, art
historic value. If there is a show that is a retrospective of de Kooning’s work, it
is an important piece in his overall career. In the fall we are lending it to the Royal
Academy of Arts in London for a major exhibition that they are doing on abstract expressionism
as a whole. De Kooning’s woman painting is important to the history of art, because
it is so important to the history of de Kooning’s career. Just like Picasso, Goya, you can go
back into art history and single out artists throughout the course that have influenced
other artists, that have experimented, that have made real inroads in terms of influencing
the art that came after them.
Jazz piano music playing.