Saturday Night

Willem de Kooning

1956

On View in James M. Kemper Gallery, Room 1

Born in Rotterdam, Willem de Kooning became one of the most prominent representatives of postwar American Abstract Expressionism. Saturday Night is characterized by a complex configuration of form and color with layers of expressive brushwork oriented in multiple directions. Taking the title into account, the horizontal registers of the painting might allude to a gridded cityscape, specifically invoking the energetic environment of modern urban life. However, this work also revisits the female figure, one of de Kooning’s favorite leitmotifs, here conjured through the painting’s abstract medley of ovular forms, suggestive flesh tones, and organic curves. Formally de Kooning also questions the idea of painting as a supposedly pure expression of an authentic subjectivity: by altering and correcting his original brushstrokes in several passages—blending or scraping the layers of paint—de Kooning renders the painting subject to intentional artistic reflection. He thus conveys a notion of subjectivity as driven by the artist’s consciousness rather than by unconscious processes of the psyche. [Permanent collection label, 2017]

Artist Willem de Kooning (American, b. Netherlands, 1904–1997)
Title Saturday Night
Date 1956
Medium Oil on canvas
Dimensions unframed | 68 3/4 x 79 in.
Credit line University purchase, Bixby Fund, 1956
Object number WU 3855

Technique oil painting
Work type painting
Theme Abstraction

Currently on View James M. Kemper Gallery, Room 1

Short-term loans for display in galleries
Saint Louis Art Museum, 06/06/2018 - 08/04/2019

Frederick Hartt and American Abstraction in the 1950s: Building the Collection at Washington University in St. Louis
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 05/04/2012 - 08/27/2012

Picasso to Pollock: H.W. Janson and the Legacy of Modern Art at Washington University in St. Louis
Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum (San Antonio, Texas), 08/17/2004 - 10/24/2004

H. W. Janson and the Legacy of Modern Art at Washington University in St. Louis
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 08/30/2002 - 12/08/2002
Salander-O’Reilly Galleries (New York, New York), 03/12/2002 - 04/06/2002

International Abstraction: Art of the 1950s from the Washington University Collections
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 01/22/1999 - 03/28/1999

Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 01/12/1998 - 04/05/1998

Abstract Expressionism: American Art in the 1950s and 1960s
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 01/17/1997 - 04/06/1997

Willem de Kooning: Paintings
Tate Modern (London, England), 02/15/1995 - 05/07/1995
The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, New York), 10/06/1994 - 01/08/1995
National Gallery of Art (Washington, DC), 05/08/1994 - 09/05/1994

A Gallery of Modern Art
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 08/09/1994 - 10/16/1994

Twentieth Century Art from the Washington University Collection
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 01/28/1994 - 03/27/1994

Abstract Expressionism: The Critical Developments
Buffalo AKG Art Museum, 09/19/1987 - 11/29/1987

Modernism at Midstream: From Europe to America and Back Again
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 09/04/1983 - 11/06/1983

Capsule of Modern Art
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 01/09/1983 - 03/06/1983

Cubist, Expressionist, and Surrealist Paintings and Sculptures
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 09/20/1980 - 11/02/1980

Summer Selections
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 05/24/1979 - 08/31/1979

Poets of the Cities, New York and San Francisco 1950–1965
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 01/31/1975 - 03/23/1975
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, 04/23/1975 - 06/01/1975
Dallas Museum of Art, 11/20/1974 - 12/29/1974

Painting in NY
Pasadena Art Museum (Pasadena, California), 01/24/1969 - 01/11/1970

William De Kooning
Art Institute of Chicago, 05/16/1969 - 07/06/1969
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 07/28/1969 - 09/14/1969
Museum of Modern Art, New York, 03/03/1969 - 04/27/1969

Fifty Years of Modern Art
The Cleveland Museum of Art (Cleveland, Ohio), 06/06/1966 - 07/31/1966

Washington University Collection of Modern Paintings and Sculpture from Daumier to Pollock
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 04/06/1966 - 05/08/1966

American Painting 1910–1960: A Special Exhibition Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Association of College Unions
Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University (Bloomington, Indiana), 04/19/1964 - 05/10/1964

Art Since 1950, American and International
Fine Arts Pavilion, World's Fair (Seattle, Washington), 04/21/1962 - 10/21/1962
Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University (Waltham, Massachusetts), 11/20/1962 - 12/23/1962

Opening Exhibition of Mark C. Steinberg Memorial Hall
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 04/29/1960

Acquisitions
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis

Willem de Kooning: Recent Paintings
Sidney Janis Gallery (New York, New York, 04/02/1956 - 04/28/1956

H. W. Janson and the Legacy of Modern Art 2002

Frederick Hartt and American Abstraction in the 1950s: Building the Collection at Washington University in St. Louis 2012

1956
Sidney Janis Gallery, New York

Inscription Recto, lower right: de Kooning

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