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Willem de Kooning |
This type of painting is called "action painting!" You can see how the artist created it, and follow his actions and gestures. Willem de Kooning used different sized brushes (notice how all the strokes are not the same width), and sometimes squeezed the paint right out of the tubes in globs. Some of his lines are straight and sharp, while others are curved and graceful. Sometimes lines seem to outline a shape, and at other times they exist on their own. Try to figure out how a section of Gotham News was painted. Choose one part of the work, and think about what order the colors were put on, and how he applied them.
De Kooning thought about what he wanted to do, adding strokes then stepping back to consider his next move. So part of this work was planned. But he also liked accidental effects, such as when some of his paint dripped or smeared. The most interesting accident of all was the newsprint. When you see the painting at the Albright-Knox, you can find sections that look like part of a newspaper. De Kooning put newspaper on the wet paint to help it dry more quickly—it's not the newspaper that you see, just the ink that stuck to the painting.
Maybe it's because of the newsprint that de Kooning called this Gotham News. Gotham is the city in the Batman adventures, and refers to New York, where de Kooning lived. How do you think he felt about the city? If you like big cities, you might interpret Gotham News as reflecting all the colors, excitement, and energy of a large city. If you don't like cities, you might see confusion, violence, and crowds in the work. Or perhaps he shows both the good and the bad things about a large city! What do you think?