A nice and chunky biography about one of the greatest modern painters. I loved reading about all his idiosyncrasies and the strange way he said certain things. Willem certainly led an interesting life.

One of the best biographies I've ever read. Interesting for anyone who is fascinated, like me, by the music, art, and culture of NYC in the 1940s-1950s.

I had to finally give up about 200 pages in. While the book is exceptionally well-researched I found the references to de Kooning's immigrant status near-constant, often irrelevant, and totally gratuitous. It was also used to interpret his paintings in ways that felt like a real leap. What ALSO felt gratuitous to me was the near-obsessive documentation of his romantic history and the Daily Mail-meets-Dr. Freud judgments of it that I also did not care about.

I picked up this book because I wanted to figure out what all the fuss was about regarding de Kooning's ACTUAL PAINTINGS. 200 pages in, there are only a few paragraphs about this topic! That's insane. I don't care who he slept with or how American he did or did not seem to the authors at various points of his life. I want to know why I'm supposed to be impressed by his art, why he is an American Master, as the authors say in the book's title.

If there is a book out there about the actual paintings by this man and their maturation over time, please point me in that direction!

This book redefined my life. I love every word. When I finished, I just wanted to start right back at page one. That has never happened before.

An absolutely riveting biography.

Before I read this book, I rarely read straight-up biographies. I think the last one I read was a bio of Sylvia Plath I waded though in the tenth grade for an essay I was writing on her (oh yes, I was so tortured). I still recall bits and pieces from that bio, but I didn't crave all things biography after I'd finished. I think I went to track practice and forgot about it.

This book has singlehandedly renewed my faith in the biography. I have never been in love with de Kooning's paintings, but I can't resist hundreds of pages of details about this nutty man and his exploits. Oh yeah, and art criticism that isn't boring and actually made me appreciate the paintings more fully. It also helped that de Kooning hob-nobbed with all these drunk modern artists and the bio has detailed accounts of all the people he spent time with, was inspired by, and ahem, had relations with. Did I mention that de Kooning had lots and lots of sexy lady friends, too? Well, he did. Later in life, de Kooning gets dementia, but keeps on painting. It's really interesting to see how his work changes and what remains the same throughout his life, especially when the ravaging effects of his wild lifestyle begin to take hold.

This was a really engrossing and inspiring read. Like VH1's Behind the Music meets MOMA. I have yet to find another biography that hits the mark as this one does.

I chose this book to read during my summer travels - and almost regretted it due to its sheer mass. That said, I found the book to be highly readable and thought it provided great insight into de Kooning's life, his art and the New York art scene at the mid-century mark.

If you can, read this book with a complimentary book of all his art work. That way when they talk about a painting and moment in his life, you can view that moment--The words describing the artistic moment aren't enough. You want to see what they're talking about and this book doesn't have enough photos of paintings to do that. Hey, I think I'm going to do that with other artists--two books. one a biography, the other all his paintings. Double hey hey. You could do that with music--a bio on the band and all there music on You Tube or Spotify.

This book tells a great personal story. Childhood poverty, earning a scholarship to one of Holland's premier art academies, immigrating to New York after World War II, working as a a carpenter and window dresser, breakthroughs to new artistic levels, living in the bohemian world of Greenwich Village in the 50's, alcoholism, the several women who critically influenced his life (and the many who did not), the influence of his mentor Arshile Gorky, his friendship/rivalry with Jackson Pollack, Robert Motherwell and Mark Rothko, eventual great celebrity and financial success, an autumnal period of great creativity and finally his sliding into Alzheimer's.

It also provides excellent analysis of the development of Abstract Expressionism, insightful explications of several of de Kooning's seminal works and insights into the cut-throat business of New York galleries in the 50's and 60's.

A really great book.

Not often does a book tell the detailed story of a angst ridden artist and give the reader the pleasure of getting to know the time period which involves places and other artists. This book flowed even though it took me 6 weeks to read. It certainly deserved a Pulitzer. Now reading Ninth Street Women to fill in for the women artists of the same period.

I loved learning even more about an artist who spent his life dedicated to his craft while ignoring the critiques influence.

This Pulitzer Prize winner was a page turner for me, who recently saw his retrospective at MOMA! I just wish I would have read it before I went to the exhibit. His life and the big names he rubbed shoulders with make for a fascinating read. Incredible amount of research, as one would expect from a Pulitzer winner, but reads like a novel!

This was a christmas gift from 2005. I read the review in the NYT [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/11/boo...] and the book sounded fascinating. The problem--the book is extremely detailed. I guess that is the point. de Kooning is a weirdo and fun to read about, but this experience made me think that sometimes I just like reading the reviews better than the entire book. I'm still working on it--I'll let you know how it ends--hint: think deathmatch with pollock.