"The word 'abstract' comes from the light tower of the philosophers.. ..and it seems to be one of their spotlights that they have particularly focused [sic] on 'Art.' So the artist is always lighted up by it. As soon as it — I mean the 'abstract' — comes into painting, it ceases to be what it is as it is written. It changes into a feeling which could be explained by some other words, probably. ..[abstraction was] not so much what you could paint but rather what you could not paint. You could not paint a house or a tree or a mountain. It was then that subject matter came into existence as something you ought not have."
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Willem de Kooning
Willem de Kooning (24 April 1904 – 19 March 1997) was an abstract expressionist painter, born in Rotterdam, Netherlands, who settled in the United States. Along with Jackson Pollock, and others, he was an exponent of Abstract expressionism. Initially, he was strongly influenced by Picasso, Cubism, and Chaim Soutine. He was married with Elaine de Kooning and closely befriended with Arshile Gorky; later with Franz Kline.
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