Willem de Kooning

Willem de Kooning (April 24, 1904 – March 19, 1997) was a Dutch-American abstract expressionist artist.
He was born in Rotterdam and moved to the United States in 1926. He became an American citizen in 1962. In 1943, he married painter Elaine Fried.
De Kooning's first paintings were of men and women. By 1948, he had a show of black and white abstractions. By 1950 he was connected to the New York School of painters.
By the 1950s, de Kooning was famous and successful. Some of his followers were the American painters Michael Goldberg, Alfred Leslie, Grace Hartigan, and Joan Mitchell.