Where to See Woman I by Willem de Kooning

Willem de Kooning worked on Woman I from 1950 to 1952, scraping and repainting obsessively. The figure emerges from violent brushwork: huge eyes, bared teeth, enormous breasts. She's both ancient fertility goddess and modern pin-up, terrifying and magnetic.

The painting outraged those who felt Abstract Expressionism had moved beyond representation. De Kooning insisted the figure kept asserting itself. The Woman series consumed him for years. This first painting established the theme: female power that is seductive, monstrous, and indestructible. It hangs in MoMA.

Many felt de Kooning had betrayed abstraction by returning to figurative painting. Others found the image of women disturbing or misogynistic. De Kooning continued the Woman series regardless.

De Kooning worked on Woman I for nearly two years (1950-1952), constantly scraping off and repainting. The process of revision became central to his method.

De Kooning cited Mesopotamian fertility goddesses, Marilyn Monroe, and billboard ads as influences. The Woman figures combine ancient power with modern commercial sexuality.

Woman I

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Also at Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)

Broadway Boogie Woogie

Bird in Space

Simultaneous Contrasts: Sun and Moon

Grapes

One: Number 31, 1950

Composition VIII

Summertime: Number 9A

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Girl Writing

Woman and child in front of a farm

Composition with Yellow, Blue and Red

Gabriele Munter painting

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Les Demoiselles d'Avignon

Dance (I)

About Woman I

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