Elaine de Kooning

Elaine Marie Catherine de Kooning (də ˈkoːnɪŋ, née Fried; March 12, 1918 – February 1, 1989) was an Abstract Expressionist and Figurative Expressionist painter in the post-World War II era. She wrote extensively on the art of the period and was an editorial associate for Art News magazine. Elaine de Kooning was born Elaine Marie Catherine Fried in 1918 in Flatbush, New York. Later in life she told people she was born in 1920. Her parents were Mary Ellen O'Brien, an Irish Catholic, and Charles Frank Fried, a Protestant of Jewish descent. Her father Charles was a plant manager for the Bond Bread Company. Elaine was the eldest of four children; Marjorie (Luyckx), Conrad, and Peter were her siblings. Her mother, despite being recalled as less loving and attentive than some parents by Elaine's younger sister, supported her eldest's artistic endeavors. Elaine's mother started taking Elaine to museums at the age of five and taught her to draw what she saw. Elaine's childhood room was decorated with painting reproductions. Her mother was committed to the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center for a year during Elaine's childhood after a neighbor reported her for neglect of her children. In grade school, Elaine began drawing and selling portraits of children attending her school. She was interested in and did well at sports as well as art. Elaine studied at Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn. After graduating from High School, she briefly studied math at Hunter College in New York City, where she befriended a group of abstract and Social Realist painters. In 1937, she attended the Leonardo da Vinci Art School and went on to study at the American Artists School, both in New York City. While attending school, Elaine made money working as an art school model. In the fall of 1938 her teacher Robert Jonas introduced her to Willem de Kooning at a Manhattan cafeteria when she was 20 and he 34. Elaine had admired his artwork before meeting him. After meeting, Willem began to instruct her in drawing and painting.