The word 'abstract' comes from the light tower of the philosophers. One of their spotlights that they have particularly focused on 'Art'. [Abstraction was] not so much what you could paint but rather what you could not paint. You could… — Willem de Kooning Copy Share Image
The 'Women' had to do with the female painted through all ages, all those idols, and maybe I was stuck to a certain extent; I couldn't go on. It did one thing for me: it eliminated composition, arrangement, relationships, light… — Willem de Kooning Copy Share Image
I think I'm painting a picture of two women but it may turn out to be a landscape. — Willem de Kooning Copy Share Image
Im not someone whos ever said anything definitive about his work. In my life also I have very little fixed form. I can change… — Willem de Kooning Copy Share Image
Style is a fraud. I always felt the Greeks were hiding behind their columns. — Willem de Kooning Copy Share Image
Whatever an artist's personal feelings are, as soon as an artist fills a certain area on the canvas or circumscribes it, he becomes historical.… — Willem de Kooning Copy Share Image
The idea of space is given to the artist to change if he can. The subject matter in the abstract is space. — Willem de Kooning Copy Share Image
If I stretch my arms and wonder where my fingers are - that is all the space I need as a painter. — Willem de Kooning Copy Share Image
The artist fills space with an attitude. The attitude never comes from himself alone. — Willem de Kooning Copy Share Image
I feel sometimes an American artist must feel, like a baseball player or something - a member of a team writing American history. — Willem de Kooning Copy Share Image
Maybe in that earlier phase I was painting the woman in me. Art isn't a wholly masculine occupation, you know. — Willem de Kooning Copy Share Image
![“The word 'abstract' comes from the light tower of the philosophers. One of their spotlights that they have particularly focused on 'Art'. [Abstraction was] not so much what you could paint but rather what you could not paint. You could not paint a house or a tree or a mountain. It was then that…” quote by Willem de Kooning](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/df9/willem-de-kooning-12563_abstract_the-word-abstract-comes-from-the-light-t_1161081.jpg)
