The Semiotics of Willem de Kooning’s <i>Easter Monday</i>
Critics have frequently employed strict binary schemes to explain Abstract Expressionism’s singular contributions to art history: the victory of abstraction over figuration, avant-garde over kitsch, pure art over anecdotal illustration, action over premeditation, or escapist detachment over direct p...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2023-02-01
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| Series: | Arts |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0752/12/1/31 |
| _version_ | 1797622493479960576 |
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| author | Claude Cernuschi |
| author_facet | Claude Cernuschi |
| author_sort | Claude Cernuschi |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Critics have frequently employed strict binary schemes to explain Abstract Expressionism’s singular contributions to art history: the victory of abstraction over figuration, avant-garde over kitsch, pure art over anecdotal illustration, action over premeditation, or escapist detachment over direct political engagement. Taking Willem de Kooning’s <i>Easter Monday</i> as a case study, this paper will question the efficacy of such dyadic explanations to encapsulate the diversity of New York School practice. <i>Easter Monday</i> includes both figural and abstract elements, some that parade the work’s impulsive and spontaneous character and others that were created by a photo-mechanical process. Some celebrate the artist’s personal and idiosyncratic touch, others the impersonality of popular forms of advertising. In contradistinction, the semiotic terminology of C.S. Pierce reveals not only multiple points of intersection with de Kooning’s work; it also effectively identifies and differentiates the plurality of elements the artist conjoined in a single visual field, some of which qualify as iconic, indexical, symbolic, or even as hybrid combinations of the above. These more elastic descriptors, it will be argued, are well-suited to address de Kooning’s variegated surfaces: they can address his accommodation of diverse techniques, as well as the multiple ways the artist constructed meaning and responded to popular culture. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T09:11:04Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-78b11c84911d4dd6ba188988ebf35e1e |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2076-0752 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T09:11:04Z |
| publishDate | 2023-02-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Arts |
| spelling | doaj.art-78b11c84911d4dd6ba188988ebf35e1e2023-11-16T19:00:46ZengMDPI AGArts2076-07522023-02-011213110.3390/arts12010031The Semiotics of Willem de Kooning’s <i>Easter Monday</i>Claude Cernuschi0Independent Researcher, Brookline, MA 02446, USACritics have frequently employed strict binary schemes to explain Abstract Expressionism’s singular contributions to art history: the victory of abstraction over figuration, avant-garde over kitsch, pure art over anecdotal illustration, action over premeditation, or escapist detachment over direct political engagement. Taking Willem de Kooning’s <i>Easter Monday</i> as a case study, this paper will question the efficacy of such dyadic explanations to encapsulate the diversity of New York School practice. <i>Easter Monday</i> includes both figural and abstract elements, some that parade the work’s impulsive and spontaneous character and others that were created by a photo-mechanical process. Some celebrate the artist’s personal and idiosyncratic touch, others the impersonality of popular forms of advertising. In contradistinction, the semiotic terminology of C.S. Pierce reveals not only multiple points of intersection with de Kooning’s work; it also effectively identifies and differentiates the plurality of elements the artist conjoined in a single visual field, some of which qualify as iconic, indexical, symbolic, or even as hybrid combinations of the above. These more elastic descriptors, it will be argued, are well-suited to address de Kooning’s variegated surfaces: they can address his accommodation of diverse techniques, as well as the multiple ways the artist constructed meaning and responded to popular culture.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0752/12/1/31Willem de KooningCharles Sanders PeirceAbstract Expressionismsemiotics |
| spellingShingle | Claude Cernuschi The Semiotics of Willem de Kooning’s <i>Easter Monday</i> Arts Willem de Kooning Charles Sanders Peirce Abstract Expressionism semiotics |
| title | The Semiotics of Willem de Kooning’s <i>Easter Monday</i> |
| title_full | The Semiotics of Willem de Kooning’s <i>Easter Monday</i> |
| title_fullStr | The Semiotics of Willem de Kooning’s <i>Easter Monday</i> |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Semiotics of Willem de Kooning’s <i>Easter Monday</i> |
| title_short | The Semiotics of Willem de Kooning’s <i>Easter Monday</i> |
| title_sort | semiotics of willem de kooning s i easter monday i |
| topic | Willem de Kooning Charles Sanders Peirce Abstract Expressionism semiotics |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0752/12/1/31 |
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