ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONIST ARTIST

Recognition.

In 1954 when the Museum of Modern Art mounted the exhibit for the American Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, the most prestigious world display of contemporary art, only two artists were included: Ben Shahn, a proletarian painter and poster-art innovator, and Willem de Kooning. It was the second of three times during the 1950s that de Kooning's works had been included in the Venice Biennale, and it was a recognition of his preeminent place among contemporary American artists. In New York his works were included in the Whitney Museum Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting every year during the decade except for 1955, 1957, and 1958; his works were at the center of the influential Young American Painters exhibit at the Guggenheim Museum; and his three one-man shows at the Sidney Janis Gallery in Manhattan were among the most influential of the decade. No living American...