100,000+ Books, Games & Puzzles in-stock 🇳🇿

Overnight NZ-wide delivery on in-stock orders 🚀

Willem De Kooning

Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Willem De Kooning by Corinna Thierolf provides an insightful exploration of the life and artistic journey of the influential abstract expressionist painter. The book delves into De Kooning's techniques and creative evolution, capturing the essence of his complex style and the impact he had on the art world. It offers readers a glimpse into both his personal struggles and artistic triumphs, giving a comprehensive portrait of the man behind the masterpieces.
Read More
Format: Hardback
TEMPORARILY OUT OF STOCK Please add to wishlist to be notified when back in stock

Sorry, we're currently out of stock of Willem De Kooning. Please add to your Wishlist and we'll send you an email as soon as it's back in stock.

Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

You might enjoy this book if you're fascinated by the life and artistic journey of one of the most influential abstract expressionist painters. It offers an in-depth look at his creative process, personal struggles, and the cultural impact of his work, making it a rich read for art enthusiasts and those interested in the history of modern art.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

In 1926, 22-year-old Dutchman Willem de Kooning (1904–1997) travelled to the USA on a British freighter—without papers and hidden in the machine room. The young art student eked out a living by painting houses, signs, and façades, before he was able, after eight years, to dedicate himself entirely to painting.

In the United States, he established contacts with the art scene and forged friendships with artists such as Arshile Gorky, Franz Kline, Clifford Still, Jackson Pollock, and Mark Rothko. Today, De Kooning belongs to the outstanding painters of Abstract Expressionism and, together with Jackson Pollock, is regarded as a pioneer of Action Painting.

Willem De Kooning vividly examines his life, marked by self-doubts, successes, new beginnings, excesses, and scandalous paintings, as well as the evolution of his artistic work. In addition, author Corinna Thierolf opens up exciting perspectives on De Kooning's work by revealing entirely new, surprising relationships with the works of fellow artists such as Franz Marc, Piet Mondrian, and Wassily Kandinsky.

Series: The Great Masters of Art

View all
  • Vasily Kandinsky
    Vasily Kandinsky by Hajo Düchting explores the life and work of one of the first painters of abstract art and a founding member of the Blue Rider movement. Although he trained as a lawyer, Kandinsky abandoned this career path to devote himself to art, both as a creator and an influential teacher and theorist at the Bauhaus. Over time, Kandinsky's...
    Hardback
    $2999
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Agnes Pelton
    The spiritually inspired pictures of Agnes Pelton (1881-1961) have their roots in the desert of California, a place where the artist settled in 1932 and where she lived until her death. She wrote of her highly symbolic paintings that her pictures were "like little windows", which opened up a view into the interior, her "message of light to the world"....
    Hardback
    $2999
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Frida Kahlo
    Life and work of the artist and style icon Frida Kahlo in a compact overview. Frida Kahlo has become an icon of art with her powerfully expressive work. Her pictures not only reflect a view of herself, her fears, the biography of her illness, her passions and her joie de vivre; they also take up subjects which were regarded by...
    Hardback
    $2999
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Gustav Klimt
    Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) is the one artist whose name we associate in particular with Viennese Jugendstil and the "Golden Age". As a sought-after painter of frescoes and the founding president of the Vienna Secession, as the portraitist of fashionable ladies and as an illustrator of unashamed eroticism, Klimt was both the enfant terrible and the darling of Viennese society. He...
    Hardback
    $2999
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Paul Cézanne
    His paintbrush set everything in motion: the landscape of Provence, the colourful still lifes, his portraits and the picturesque coast of southern France. More than any other artist, Paul Cézanne, the "Father of Modernism", captured the light and the play of colours of the South in his pictures and lent them through his new pictorial language a liveliness and dynamism...
    Hardback
    $2999
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Heinrich Campendonk
    The youngest member of the Blauer Reiter group was overshadowed for a long time by fellow painters such as Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc, August Macke, and Paul Klee. But in recent years, Heinrich Campendonk has enjoyed an unparalleled rediscovery and a new critical assessment of his extensive oeuvre. Biermann described Campendonk's early work as a unique symphony of colour and...
    Hardback
    $2999
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Henri Matisse
    Henri Matisse created an oeuvre that is unparalleled in its brilliance and originality. His colourfully luminescent paintings are a sweeping affirmation of joie de vivre, levity, and sensitivity. Featuring well-researched texts and numerous illustrations, this volume offers fascinating insights into the life and artistic development of Henri Matisse, one of the preeminent pioneers of modern art. When people think of...
    Hardback
    $2999
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Alfons Mucha
    At the beginning of the twentieth century, when Alfons Mucha went to the United States for four years as a lecturer, the world-famous poster designer, Art-Nouveau book illustrator, designer, photographer, and painter was greeted with enthusiasm. Mucha is regarded as one of the most important representatives of Jugendstil; he knew how to move between the various genres more skilfully than...
    Hardback
    $2199
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Florine Stettheimer
    "I was thrilled", was Andy Warhol's enthusiastic reaction to the pictures of Florine Stettheimer (1871-1944). Many of the elements of her work inspired his Pop Art. During Stettheimer's life, her sensuous and ironic paintings with their numerous figures were valued highly by artists and curators, although the general public remained largely unaware of their merits. Only after her death did...
    Hardback
    $2999
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Hans Purrmann
    The painter Hans Purrmann (1880-1966) ranks among the most important colourists of twentieth-century art. Drawing on Henri Matisse and the expressionists, he developed a distinct and acclaimed artistic practice over the course of a life lived in places from Munich to Paris to Berlin to Florence to Switzerland. Part of the secret of Hans Purrmann's art is that in his...
    Hardback
    $2999
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Vincent van Gogh
    Vivid descriptions provide an insight into his painterly work: "... At the moment I am immersed in my work with the clear-sightedness or blindness of a man in love. This mixture of colours is something that is quite new for me and when I see it I am beside myself ..." It is not for nothing that the letters are...
    Hardback
    $2999
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Käthe Kollwitz
    I want to have an effect at this time, in which people are at such a loss and so much in need of help. Käthe Kollwitz is the woman artist from 20th-century Germany whose works are best-known internationally. She also enjoys the highest esteem beyond the boundaries of Europe. The inimitable, touching language of her graphic and sculptural works is...
    Hardback
    $2999
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9783777430737

Publisher: Hirmer Verlag

Format: Hardback

Date Published: 05 July 2018

Country: Germany

Imprint: Hirmer Verlag

Illustration: Illustrated in colour and duotone throughout

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Width: 140.0mm

Height: 205.0mm

Weight: 270g

Pages: 72

About the Author

Corinna Thierolf is head conservator of the Bavarian State Painting Collections and has curated numerous exhibitions for the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich.

More from Biography & Memoir

View all
  • This Angry Pen of Mine
    This Angry Pen of Mine by Layne Staley invites you to dive into the untold creative world of Layne Staley, the legendary voice behind Alice in Chains. This extraordinary collection showcases his handwritten lyrics, deeply personal poetry, stunning original artwork, rare photos, fan tributes, and so much more. Step into the world of Layne Staley like never before. For the...
    Hardback
    $7299
    Elsewhere:
    $8999
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    Famesick
    Chronicling the tumultuous decade between the premiere of Girls to her 2021 shotgun wedding (minus the baby, because she has no uterus), Lena Dunham takes us through her journey with her trademark mix of humor, unsparing honesty, and keen eye for detail. We peek behind the scenes - of her work, her family, her relationships, and her battle to reclaim her body...
    Paperback
    $3299
    Elsewhere:
    $3500
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    Dogs, Boys and Other Things I've Cried About
    From the social media superstar behind @SimonSits, Isabel Klee--known for her heartwarming tales of dog rescue--comes an utterly winning memoir about a twentysomething woman's search for true love in New York City and the dogs who helped her find it. A Jersey girl by birth, Isabel Klee had always wanted to live in New York City. At age 20, she...
    Paperback
    $3299
    Elsewhere:
    $3999
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Signed Copy
    New Release
    Stakes
    Read our interview with author Noelle McCarthy! A darkly funny, sparkling follow-up to the author’s bestselling memoir Grand. You have to invite him in. You have to want the vampire’s badness in the house with you. Growing up in Catholic Ireland, Noelle McCarthy is captivated by Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The vampire is a risk-free fantasy, a suave alternative to the fraught realities...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $4000
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    Built for This
    Raised among strong women, butcher's benches, and hard ideas about what men are meant to be, Brad Poulter grows up knowing he's different long before he has the words for it. But in late '90s small-town New Zealand, 'different' isn't discussed, it's managed. Joining the Royal New Zealand Navy offers escape, certainty, and belonging. The rules are clear, the uniform...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Even the Good Girls Will Cry
    Thanks to a thrown beer bottle and a fan letter to a P.O. box, Melissa Auf der Maur's first band scored an opening slot for the Smashing Pumpkins in her bohemian home town, Montreal. Sensing Melissa's talent, Billy Corgan recommended her to Courtney Love. Whisked from her local scene, Melissa joined Hole just after the deaths of Kurt Cobain and...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3999
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    An Ocean and a Day
    An utterly riveting, moving and poignant memoir of grief and loss that will speak to anyone who's ever lost someone they love. An Ocean and a Day is Hannah Richell's personal account of losing her husband, Matt, in a surfing accident on Tamarama beach in 2014. It is the story of the grief journey she travelled over the first two...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    A Place to Stand
    A Place to Stand by Clare Ward is a profound memoir that delves into the life of a country doctor living and working in the Hokianga Harbour area in the far north of Aotearoa New Zealand. This region is sparsely populated and poses numerous health challenges. This thoughtful account details Clare’s thirty-year career, highlighting the people she works with and...
    Hardback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    Rory
    The New York Times bestseller The #1 Irish Times bestseller The definitive biography of Rory McIlroy, the most important, popular and confounding player of the post-Tiger era. Rory McIlroy contains multitudes. The child of a working-class family from a small town in a war-torn homeland now commutes to work in his own private jet and counts billionaires as confidants. He can overwhelm a golf...
    Paperback
    $3699
    Elsewhere:
    $4199
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    Te Kaikaukau | The Swimmer
    Novelist, memoirist and playwright Witi Ihimaera – author of Pounamu, Pounamu and The Whale Rider – decided, at the age of eighty, to dive back into the water and spend a year full-time at Te Wānanga Takiura, immersing himself in his own language, in te reo Māori. This book tells the story of this kaikaukau, this swimmer, and his year...
    Paperback
    $3500
    Elsewhere:
    $4500
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    This Is Me: A Reckoning
    This is a searingly honest and moving memoir from double Golden Globe-nominatedactress Hayden Panettiere. Hayden Panettiere has been in front of the camera since before she could talk. She roseto stardom typecasted as Hollywood's blonde girl next door. As a young celebrity,naysayers were certain she would crash and burn. Not one to disappoint, she did.Hayden Panettiere's irreverent memoir satisfies our...
    Paperback
    $3200
    Elsewhere:
    $3999
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    Beyond Life and Death
    From martial arts icon and global film star Jet Li comes a revelatory, profound and inspiring guide to self-mastery and spiritual wisdom, distilled into 10 essential life lessons. Martial arts legend and international movie star Jet Li distils 10 powerful insights from his iconic career, his personal life and philosophies, and his 30-year Buddhist practice. Jet Li's story defies legend....
    By Jet Li
    Paperback
    $3299
    Elsewhere:
    $4000
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow

Why buy from us?

Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!

Service & Delivery

Service & Delivery

Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.

Auckland Bookstore

Auckland Bookstore

We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.

Our Gifting Service

Our Gifting Service

Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.