Willem de Kooning’s Women: A Psychoanalytic Exploration
Author: Graeme J. Taylor
Published by International Psychoanalytic Books (ipbooks.net), New York, May 2022.
Graeme
Taylor has written the first full-length psychological study of
the Dutch-American abstract painter Willem de Kooning. His particular
focus is on the renowned Woman paintings of the early
1950's, among the most emotionally powerful images of the female
figure of the 20th century. Utilizing recently available biographical
details of the artist's childhood and adolescence, Dr. Taylor brings
to bear his deep understanding of the most germane psychoanalytic
theories of early infantile trauma, attachment theory, and the
repetition compulsion to arrive at a sympathetic comprehension of de
Kooning’s relationship with his
mother, his wife, his daughter, and the succession of lovers he
maintained for the duration of his life. Dr. Taylor has a gift for
conveying the essence of some highly sophisticated psychoanalytic
perspectives, from Freud to
Bowlby to Bollas and others, in a marvellously clear style, highlighting
their relevence to understanding the unconscious determinants of de
Kooning’s obsession with the figure of the Woman, as well as the
dynamics of his creative process in the making of these iconic images.
It is a
wonderful achievement and a worthy contribution, both to the literature
of modern art and to the psychoanalytic study of the creative
personality.
- Steven Poser, PH.D., Psychoanalyst, author, and award-winning painter, New York
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