de Kooning, Willem

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de Kooning, Willem (1904–97) US painter, b. Netherlands. De Kooning was greatly influenced by Picasso and Arshile Gorky. In 1948, he became one of the leaders of abstract expressionism. Unlike Pollock, he kept a figurative element in his work and shocked the public with violently distorted images, such as the Women series (1953). His emphasis on technique became known as action painting.

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