WILLEM DE KOONING, 1955, Getty Museum.
A dove gray ground—thin, soft, vulnerable.
A smear across the abdomen, flattening everything. Unusually smooth surface; no impasto.
Thinned down paint layers. No gloss, no visible varnish. Large vermilion-orange strokes with a two-inch brush. Down.
The black is ink-like, dripping into negative space. Staccato, punctuating.
Earthy butter yellow: the painting’s namesake. The same as lead tin yellow light.
(Something close to Vermeer but not quite).
Subtle framing by turquoise splashes on each of the figure’s shoulders and down the left.
Two magenta stripes define the shoulder girdle, one on each side.
A brown architectonic form across the bottom, like the figure is on the roof of a house.
The figure is considered seated, but she has flown in from somewhere and is already disappearing.
Though monumental, she is ephemeral.
Like a symphony, experiencing her means she is already gone.❧
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