The Wave

Willem de Kooning, The Wave, ca. 1942-1944, oil on fiberboard, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift from the Vincent Melzac Collection, 1980.6.1
Copied Willem de Kooning, The Wave, ca. 1942-1944, oil on fiberboard, 48 x 48 in. (121.9 x 121.9 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift from the Vincent Melzac Collection, 1980.6.1

Artwork Details

Title
The Wave
Artist
Date
ca. 1942-1944
Location
Dimensions
48 x 48 in. (121.9 x 121.9 cm)
Credit Line
Gift from the Vincent Melzac Collection
Mediums
Mediums Description
oil on fiberboard
Classifications
Highlights
Subjects
  • Abstract
Object Number
1980.6.1
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1980.6.1

Artwork Description

Willem de Kooning's work is based in improvisation and free gesture. Here, an elegant line defines what could be read as a landscape, a figure, or simply a series of looping forms. Throughout his career, the artist shifted between representational and abstract modes of expression. "Art should not have to be a certain way," he once said. "It is no use worrying about being related to something it is impossible not to be related to."

Born in the Netherlands, de Kooning came to the United States in 1926 without a passport or visa. Arriving as an academically trained commercial artist, he went on to become a defining figure of abstract painting in New York.