Week 2: Willem de Kooning

I randomly flipped through my little art history book and landed on Willem de Kooning, a Dutch-American artist. I do not like de Kooning. It has been a struggle to write this post, because I do not like his paintings. Many seem aggressive and confrontational, which is perhaps the point: to push the viewer out of their comfort zone and to actually make them squirm. While I can appreciate and even respect this intention, I don't enjoy it. Posters of de Kooning's work will never hang on my walls. Here's a quote from de Kooning's Wikipedia entry

"Aggressive brushwork and strategically placed high-key colors in these paintings merged with images of toothy snarls, overripe, pendulous breasts, enlarged eyes and blasted extremities to reveal a woman seemingly congruent with some of modern man's most widely held sexual fears."

I was actually unable to find a work of his that I liked even a little bit. I hope to be proven wrong someday by chancing upon an intriguing de Kooning somewhere. 

That's the beautiful thing about art; it's still art even if one person hates it. Even if lots of people hate it. There are philosophical arguments about intention and motive, as in is it still "art" if the artist has no control over the subject matter? Is it still "art" if the artist (or art critics) say otherwise? Is it still "art" if it's sold for millions of dollars by a living artist (cough-Damien Hirst-cough)? My somewhat rambling point is that art doesn't have to be liked or even respected. It just is, so deal with it. 

Who should I pick for next week? Should I do two to make for my wimping out with de Kooning?