Formal Analysis of Woman and Bicycle by Willem de Kooning

808 Words2 Pages

Formal Analysis: Woman and Bicycle by Willem de Kooning Woman and Bicycle is an abstract expressionist painting created by Willem de Kooning in 1952-53 as part of his collection of Women paintings. It roughly measures 6ft. by 4ft. in size and is an oil painting on canvas. The image can be understood to be figurative, however the figure is difficult to decipher on account of the haphazard style in which it was created. It appears that the picture has been altered a great many times, as if it is just one picture deposited upon the remains of or intentions of ones prior. It is easy to decipher a pair of large jaunty eyes with their gaze intently directed back towards the viewer over a pair of particularly large breasts. The insinuation of a body remains just that, wildly gestural brushstrokes that only imply the presence of hips and thighs. De Kooning himself makes note of the illusive nature of his forms saying, “Content is a glimpse of something, and encounter like a flash. It’s very tiny—very tiny, content,” (Hess p.148). Another more distinguishable element in this painting is the pair of legs centered at the bottom of the canvas. Beyond this, the theory of content in this piece is at the discretion of the viewer’s imagination. The gestural and heavy working of the paint and the contrasting colors make the painting appear active yet are arduous to follow. The defining element of Woman and Bicycle is the presence of the black lines that do most of the work in terms of identifying the figure. Through the wild nature of the brushwork, color, and composition of the painting, it can be implied that the artist is making an implication towards the wild nature of even the most proper of women. The most... ... middle of paper ... ...ess in such a vulgarly constructed work of art. The contrasts between depth and surface, figure and landscape, promiscuity and modesty, beauty and vulgarity all present themselves in de Kooning’s Woman and Bicycle. Although the figure is a seemingly normal woman out for an afternoon with her bike, she becomes so much more through the artist’s use of color, contrast, and composition. The exotic nature of woman presents itself in her direct stare and slick buxom breasts in spite of a nearly indiscernible figure. It is understood that, on the whole, de Kooning did not paint with a purpose in mind, but rather as an opportunity to create an experience, however, that does not go to say that there isn’t some meaning that can come of this work. Even Willem de Kooning once said that art is not everything that is in it, but what you can take out of it (Hess p.144).

Show More
Related

  • Visual Analysis Bouuerau

    546 Words  | 2 Pages

    Contextual Theory: This painting depicts a portrait of life during the late 1800’s. The women’s clothing and hair style represent that era. Gorgeous landscape and a leisurely moment are captured by the artist in this work of

    Read More

  • Georges Seurat - Hi Painting

    1600 Words  | 4 Pages

    ... study for the overall concept they appear rather as abstract patterns. The shadows of the figures were very carefully modeled. The light- dark contrasts of the shadows make them seem actually real. The spatial quality is only established through the relations between the sizes of the objects. The painting is not based on a geometrical, box like space. The perspective centre is on the right, despite the fact that the composition is laid in rows parallel to the picture frame. At the same time a paradoxical foreshortening from right to left is evident. The girl fishing with the orange dress and her mother are on the same level, that is, actually at equal distance. In its spatial contruction, the painting is also a successful construction, the groups of people sitting in the shade, and who should really be seen from above, are all shown directly from the side. The ideal eye level would actually be on different horizontal lines; first at head height of the standing figures, then of those seated. Seurats methods of combing observations which he collected over two years, corresponds, in its self invented techniques, to a modern lifelike painting rather than an academic history painting.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Class Boundaries In The Undefinable

    1732 Words  | 4 Pages

    In “The Undefinable,” by the end of the young woman’s first visit, the narrator is appraising her body for its worth in a portrait. The woman views this appraisal with disdain, mocking the “rounded form, healthy flesh, and lively glances” that appeal to the painter, common tropes of upper class portraits (Grand 285). Over the course of her next two visits, the narrator begins to worship and “glorify” her being (Grand 285). In the midst of her glorification, the man is able to paint in “love and reverence” a woman as she is, so that he “may feel her divinity and worship that!” (Grand 282, 284). The goddess-like terms of exaltation that the narrator describes the women with come with a frenzy to paint the ‘soul’ of the young woman, who was “a source of inspiration the like of which no man hitherto has even imagined in art or literature” (Grand 287). The inspiration, which solidifies the woman’s role as the muse, comes from a desire for her soul, not her

    Read More

  • Pablo Picasso and Cubic Art

    1635 Words  | 4 Pages

    Keeping in harmony with colors was an important task to explain women's behavior as wells as making artwork acceptable to every body. Crossing the social boundaries and limitations would only bring void and controversy in the created artwork, which can happen by wrong use of color or wrong presentation of women's image. But for the artists like Pablo Picasso explaining the things without any boundaries and social limitations was the important thing first. Since the artwork he created have crossing boundaries both culturally and artistically, a viewer can have broader perspectives and critical analysis of life, death, and desire or the morality as well as science and technology or fiction. Picasso explains all these things in one artwork called "Girl Before the Mirror", Oil on canvas, 5'4" X 4'3."

    Read More

  • Pablo Picasso's Faith Ringgold

    575 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the wonderfully jumbled Picasso’s Studio, Faith Ringgold painted Picasso almost to the margin of his studio, crowded between a border of decoratively pieced flowered clothes and his model. Picasso- one of the 20th century most popular embodiment of the avant-garde- with a brush at hand appears ready to begin painting. While Picasso stands before the blank canvas, the model’s posture with her hands picking up her hair draws attention to her affectless face. Not only does Faith Ringgold reference Pablo Picasso’s famous Les Demoiselles de Avignon, a painting that marked a turning point in western art but she also incorporates Picasso’s cubist style in this piece. To the lower right side of the painting are numerous

    Read More

  • Frida Kahlo Velvet Dress Analysis

    563 Words  | 2 Pages

    Frida Kahlo’s honest, often bizarre, self-portraits reflect a beauty beyond the physical--- an impishness in the wide eyes, a small smirk teasing at the corners of her mouth. In her renderings, her cheeks are always heavily rouged, and exotic flowers adorn her raven hair. Self-Portrait in a Velvet Dress uses the contrast of light --- Kahlo’s glowing skin --- and dark--- the black background, and in doing so, this painting not only communicates the subject’s outward beauty. It also points to an unspoken turmoil inside of the painter: as dark as the night sky and as deep as rolling sea.

    Read More

  • The Song of the Lark

    813 Words  | 2 Pages

    When first approaching this work, one feels immediately attracted to its sense of wonder and awe. The bright colors used in the sun draws a viewer in, but the astonishment, fascination, and emotion depicted in the expression on the young woman keeps them intrigued in the painting. It reaches out to those who have worked hard in their life and who look forward to a better future. Even a small event such as a song of a lark gives them hope that there will be a better tomorrow, a thought that can be seen though the countenance by this girl. Although just a collection of oils on a canvas, she is someone who reaches out to people and inspires them to appreciate the small things that, even if only for a short moment, can make the road ahead seem brighter.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Johannes Vermeer's Woman In Blue Reading A Letter

    650 Words  | 2 Pages

    In an empty room at the Timken Museum of Art hangs one of the most iconic paintings of Johannes Vermeer, the astonishing painting, Woman in Blue Reading a Letter. In the painting a pale woman’s stands patiently while reading a letter. The woman appears to be wearing a blue jacket and a long gray skirt, and only gazing at the letter, ignoring all of her surroundings. The top right of the painting seems to be a map of the Netherlands, which attracts the viewer because it explains the setting of where the painting took place. The blue jacket around the woman’s torso appears to exaggerate the woman’s stomach, giving the impression that she might be pregnant. The blue chairs resemble a sign of absence as if she lives alone. The light on the top left shines on her face which enhances the viewer’s view of the woman’s facial expression. Johannes Vermeer’s interpretation of complex colors, the light, and her body language inflicts a persuasion on the viewer that the women is traumatized by the news in the letter.

    Read More

  • Wayside Madonna

    948 Words  | 2 Pages

    The painting is organized simply. The background of the painting is painted in an Impressionist style. The blurring of edges, however, starkly contrasts with the sharp and hard contours of the figure in the foreground. The female figure is very sharp and clear compared to the background. The background paint is thick compared to the thin lines used to paint the figures in the foreground. The thick paint adds to the reduction of detail for the background. The colors used to paint the foreground figures are vibrant, as opposed to the whitened colors of the Impressionist background. The painting is mostly comprised of cool colors but there is a range of dark and light colors. The light colors are predominantly in the background and the darker colors are in the foreground. The vivid color of the robe contrasts with the muted colors of the background, resulting in an emphasis of the robe color. This emphasis leads the viewer's gaze to the focal part of the painting: the figures in the foreground. The female and baby in the foreground take up most of the canvas. The background was not painted as the artist saw it, but rather the impression t...

    Read More

  • Artist of the Postmodernist Movement, Barbara Kruger Sends a Message to the Public

    1135 Words  | 3 Pages

    Kruger’s exploration of the role of women in society, and gender as a social construct with her aggressive and provocative images, places her in an important role in recent social and feminist movements. This, combined with her unique artistic techniques, has made her a very influential artist of postmodern times.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Cassatt's The Child And Mother Nursing Her Child

    1035 Words  | 3 Pages

    Aristotle once claimed that, “The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.” Artists, such as Louise-Elizabeth Vigée Le Brun and Mary Cassatt, captured not only the way things physically appeared on the outside, but also the emotions that were transpiring on the inside. A part no always visible to the viewer. While both artists, Le Brun and Cassatt, worked within the perimeters of their artistic cultures --the 18th century in which female artists were excluded and the 19th century, in which women were artistically limited-- they were able to capture the loving relationship between mother and child, but in works such as Marie Antoinette and Her Children and Mother Nursing her Child 1898,

    Read More

  • French Purist Art: Victors Of World War I

    820 Words  | 2 Pages

    These pictures convey the ideas of planning and reconstructing for the future through the use of axonometric drawing and the sense of individual brushstrokes that contribute to the painting’s uniformity as a whole. The use of axonometric drawing presents the objects as things that need to be produced by the French in order to function efficiently; this serves as a symbol of national pride by referring to France’s superior production compared to the Germans, and refers to how the French need to come together to rebuild their nation after the war. The individual brushstrokes that come together to form whole objects with uniform colors also contribute to the idea that the French need to unify to help their country recover from the devastation of war. In addition to that, the fact that Purist paintings intended the viewer to scan them like a machine reinforced the idea of individuals subordinating themselves to the

    Read More

  • David Becker Empty Every Night

    1832 Words  | 4 Pages

    David Becker painted a piece in 1998 titled Empty Every Night which depicts life and mortality of the human body. The elements of this image work together to provide a explanation of this piece to the audience. Becker uses specific techniques to show the chaos in human life. The meaning behind this image is not visible at first glance but requires some extra background knowledge. In this essay, I will frame a visual analysis for this piece and discuss how research effected my perception of David Becker and this work.

    Read More

  • Picasso's Studio Analysis

    677 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ringgold draws the preparations for Picasso’s painting to the upper right side of the piece, but most importantly, she draws the posing figure of Willia Marie Simone towards the center. Both of these aspects of the work push Picasso’s masterpiece to the background, and deny Picasso’s masterpiece its spontaneity. Another thing she does by making herself the center of the piece is that she asserts herself and her creativity. Ringgold’s alter-ego, Willia Marie Simone, is also used to represent what members of the avant-garde were not: females of non-European descent who were most often the subject-matter instead of its maker. Even more, she alludes to the situation of women artist in the 19th and 20th century, who were denied formal training open to men. In this story quilt Faith Ringgold bombards the audience with questions about the root of primitivism in Western art, feminist reclamation, as well as ownership of the female

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Tim Parker's Nude Paintings

    756 Words  | 2 Pages

    These works may be labeled objectifying also because a male painter painted them. Today, these works could be seen as empowering to women. The first painting gives off an emotional ride of one duplicated woman or two women. The second painting shows an emotional journey of prayer and relaxation of a woman sitting in the lotus position. The third painting could represent a strong and empowered women respecting herself and her body. Times have changed and so have views of women in society which have influenced a change in how people view nude women in

    Read More

More about Formal Analysis of Woman and Bicycle by Willem de Kooning

Open Document