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Finding Solace: de Kooning

05.16.2020

Finding Solace: de Kooning

We’re committing ourselves to inspiration. As creatives, we find solace in our work; we must come together in reassurance that this solace is indelible. At times of fear, we’re grounded by our creative touchstones, and for this we’re committing ourselves to gratitude as well. While the world is heavy with a grief of the sort that feels deep and immovable, we hope our Daily can be a source for pause on the beauty that persists in the face of it all. Over these next several weeks, as we settle into new routines at home, we’ll be highlighting artists who have sought comfort in their creative environments. We’re inspired by these artists throughout history – and now – who have retreated to their homes, to their studios, to be immersed in the solace of their work.

We’re inspired, we’re grateful, and we’ll get through this together.

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For the last of our “Finding Solace” series we’ve decided to feature another set of photos from Daniel Frasnay’s “The Artist’s World” (barring the first three images, which come from an archived spread on de Kooning’s home and studio in AD, 1982). We’re staunch admirers of Frasnay’s photography because he offers an intimacy often unexplored in profiles of artists and their process. These photos in particular include portraits of de Kooning which reveal how playfully he interacted with his surroundings in East Hampton, where he lived from 1963 until his death in 1997. 

We love this space not for its grandiosity but for its character and for its clear and deep resonance with who de Kooning was as a painter. Paint pots are overflowing and newly christened canvasses are left teetering in the vastness of it all. However, the impossibly tall and bright ceilings handle the frenetic colours ever so gracefully. This balance feels -- dare we say -- evocative of a de Kooning painting itself. And it this realization, perhaps, that becomes the grand thesis of this Finding Solace series we’ve embarked upon. In our quest to see creative people in their spaces, we’ve unearthed something simple and pointed. There will always be something toothsome about discovering an artist’s studio  married with their work, because the artists and their spaces are truly mirrors of each other. 

A short video, produced by Christie’s, featuring the long island home can be viewed here