This is an epic search through not just the life of an iconic American artist, but renders a time in America when this kind of life and production of an artist could be - and birth - and conversely reveals what would be the end of this brief moment in history as well, and the end of Modernism as it is historically understood.

This book is a well-researched, highly detailed and very readable account of de Kooning's life from his early childhood with his broken, impoverished family struggling in early nineteenth century Holland thru his decline into dementia many years later. I prefer his early and later work rather than his strange period in the middle where he appeared to have a real problem with women - painting them as ugly, scary sex objects ready to eat you up! He was uncompromising, refusing to give into modern demands to change his style and refusing to accept labels that would define his style. Yet he was also adaptable in a strange way, ready to cease painting for a while and do some sculpture and then return to painting using a different style again. His personal life was a mess like so many gifted artists - a succession of affairs, constant debt for many years and of course his alcoholism. The authors make him a likeable and sympathetic guy who was able to mix with many types of folks from different backgrounds, many of whom loved his sense of humor and his intellect. I would have loved to have had the opportunity to meet him.

Review written by Shawn Callon author of The Diplomatic Spy.

More thoughts maybe soon, but this book really opened the door for the visual arts for me

This is a brilliant biography. I only read it because I thought de Kooning was like a lesser Pollack but there wasn't a hefty definitive Pollack bio lying about at my boyfriend's parents' house, and this one was. But Mark Stevens writes the most readable, intriguing portrait of de Kooning, making you realize that there is so much more to this abstract painter. For one, he was a totally skilled draftsman. He just shifted to abstract expressionism and, late in life, sculpture. I think that it's so cool that he was trained but bucked against it, that he was friends with Arshile Gorky (and never quite got over his suicide), that he had such a long marriage with a woman who kind of sucked as a wife (he, of course, sucked as a husband).

And then there's the painting. Whenever I need a moment to think, I catch the 145 bus down to the Art Institute and sit in front of "Excavation" for a few minutes or a few hours. I could stare at that painting forever and never understand it. Yay, de Kooning.