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Creating + Conserving

  • Browse this content
  • What is conservation?
    • Art Conservation Behind the Scenes
    • What does a conservator do?
    • Tools of the Trade
    • Scientific research glossary of terms
    • Conservation glossary of terms
  • The conservator’s eye
    • The conservator’s eye: Marble statue of a wounded warrior
    • The conservator’s eye: Taddeo Gaddi, Saint Julian
    • The conservator’s eye: a stained glass Adoration of the Magi
    • The conservator’s eye: Rembrandt, Aristotle with a Bust of Homer
    • The conservator’s eye: Madame Cézanne in the Conservatory
    • The conservator’s eye: Anselm Kiefer, Bohemia Lies by the Sea
  • Painting
    • Materials and techniques
      • Browse this content
      • Tempera paint
      • Oil paint in Venice
      • Renaissance Watercolours: materials and techniques
      • Gold-ground panel painting
      • How to stretch a large canvas
      • Almost Invisible: The Cartoon Transfer Process
      • Investigating Rothko’s Technique
    • About color
      • Browse this content
      • Making Purple: The Science of Art
      • Making Green: Tempera versus Oil
      • The Alchemy of Color and Chemical Change in Medieval Manuscripts
    • How to paint like…
      • Browse this content
      • How to paint like Willem de Kooning
      • How to paint like Franz Kline
      • How to paint like Yayoi Kusama
      • How to paint like Agnes Martin
      • How to paint like Jackson Pollock
      • How to paint like Barnett Newman
      • How to paint like Ad Reinhardt
      • How to paint like Mark Rothko
    • Art terms in action
      • Browse this content
      • Art Terms in Action: Paint
      • Art Terms in Action: Turpentine Burn
      • Art Terms in Action: Palette Knife
      • Art Terms in Action: Tint, Shade, and Tone
      • Art Terms in Action: Emulsion
      • Art Terms in Action: Enamel
      • Art Terms in Action: Stain
      • Art Terms in Action: Viscosity
    • Conserving
      • Remaking a fourteenth-century triptych
      • Conservation of paintings
      • Conservation: portrait miniatures
      • Ghent Altarpiece project overview
      • Conserving a portrait of King Edward VI
      • Jan Gossart – Conservation Discoveries
      • Conserving Velázquez’s Portrait of Philip IV
      • Conserving Flowers in a Glass Vase
      • Michael Gallagher on Everhard Jabach and His Family
      • Conserving the Virgin of Guadalupe
      • Conserving Vincent van Gogh’s Field with Irises near Arles
      • Van Gogh’s Enclosed Field with Ploughman under raking light
      • The Science of Van Gogh’s Bedrooms
      • Restoring Rothko
      • Conserving Flowers in a Glass Vase
      • Conserving Cuzco School Paintings
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    • Making
      • Carving Marble with Traditional Tools
      • Quarrying and carving marble
      • Medieval goldsmiths – Treasures of Heaven at the British Museum
      • Making a Spanish polychrome sculpture
      • Bronze casting using the lost-wax technique
      • Bronze casting using the direct lost-wax method
      • Working jade
    • Conserving
      • The Conservation of Tullio Lombardo’s Adam
      • Object Conservation – Salisbury Cross
      • Conservation: Cast of the Pórtico de la Gloria
      • Contemporary Art Conservation at Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum
      • Conservation: The Nasrid plasterwork collection at the V&A
      • Conservation: Tipu’s Tiger
      • Conserving The Wolsey Angels
  • Prints, drawings, and manuscripts
    • Printmaking
      • Browse this content
      • Introduction to printmaking
      • Introduction to relief printmaking
      • Relief process
      • Introduction to intaglio
      • Intaglio process
      • Lithography process
      • Introduction to lithography
    • Making and conserving manuscripts and drawings
      • Making manuscripts
      • Renaissance Watercolours: materials and techniques
      • Drawing with Charcoal: Historical Techniques of 19th-Century France
      • Science and Paper: Conserving a Drypoint by Michael Heizer
      • Conserving Old Master Drawings
      • Henri Matisse: Conserving The Swimming Pool
  • Photographs
    • Making
      • Browse this content
      • Before photography (1 of 12)
      • The Daguerreotype (2 of 12)
      • Talbot’s Processes (3 of 12)
      • The Cyanotype (4 of 12)
      • The Collodion process
      • The Albumen Print (6 of 12)
      • The Platinum Print (7 of 12)
      • The Pigment Processes (8 of 12)
      • The Woodburytype (9 of 12)
      • The Gelatin Silver Process (10 of 12)
      • Color Photography (11 of 12)
      • Digital Photography (12 of 12)
  • Ceramic and lacquer
    • Making
      • What is ceramic art?
      • Greek Vase-Painting, an introduction
      • Ancient Greek vase production and the black-figure technique
      • Making Greek vases
    • Conserving
      • Conservation: Korean lacquer
  • Mosaic, metalwork and glass
    • Making
      • Glassmaking technique: free-blown glass
      • Mold-blown Glass
      • Ancient and Byzantine Mosaic Materials
      • Medieval Goldsmiths
      • Enamelling
      • The Electrotyping Process
      • How were micromosaics made?
  • Textiles
    • Making
      • The art of making a tapestry
    • Conserving
      • William Morris, The Bullerswood Carpet
      • Conserving the Emperor’s Carpet
      • Conservation of the Ardabil Carpet: the oldest dated carpet in the world
      • Conservation: Indian jama
  • Frames
    • Choosing
      • Framing Christina’s World by Andrew Wyeth
    • Conserving
      • Behind the scenes of the framing department at The National Gallery, London
      • Van Dyck’s Self-portrait: The Frame and its Conservation
  • Architecture
    • Conserving
      • Kasbah Taourirt: Conserving Earthen Heritage in Morocco
  • Conservation Reel archive
    • What is conservation?
      • Lab Tour: Conservation Science
      • IMA Conservation: Examining a Work
      • IMA Conservation: The Oddy Test
      • IMA Conservation: Documentation Imaging
      • IMA Conservation: 5 Questions with Richard McCoy
      • IMA Conservation: 5 Questions with Linda Witkowski
      • IMA Conservation: 5 Questions with Kristen Adsit
      • IMA Conservation: 5 Questions with Gregory Smith
      • IMA Conservation: 5 Questions with David Miller
      • IMA Conservation: 5 Questions with Amanda Holden
      • IMA Conservation: 5 Questions with Aaron Steele
    • Manuscripts and works on paper
      • How to Examine a Work on Paper
      • Wrapping Paper Objects for Hand Transport
    • Painting
      • Conservation Notes: Tom Thomson’s The West Wind
      • Finding the Lost Crucifix in a Perugino Panel Painting
      • Finding the Original Context of Rosselli’s Kneeling Angel
      • Examining a Panel Painting
      • IMA Conservation: Cleaning a Painting
      • IMA Conservation: Pigment Analysis with XRF Spectrometry
      • What X-Rays of a Vivarini Reveal About Its Past
      • Examining a Veronese with XRF Spectrometry
      • Sebastiano Mainardi: The Science of Art Installation, Behind the Scenes
    • Sculpture + installation
      • Lab Tour: Objects and Variable Art
      • Preserving Art: Tara Donovan’s Untitled (Plastic Cups)
      • Tara Donovan’s Untitled (Mylar)
      • Artist Max Dean on the conservation of As Yet Untitled
      • Talking Chaos with Roland Wetzel
      • A Conversation with Robert Irwin on Light and Space III
      • IMA Conservation: The Lightbulbs in Light and Space III
      • Evidence of Lost Wax Casting
    • Textiles
      • IMA Conservation: Preparing a Mola Garment for Display
      • IMA Conservation: Preparing Mola Textiles for Display
    • Frames
      • Examining a 17th-century frame
    • Architecture
      • The Making of the Bartholomew County Veterans Memorial
      • Modern Architecture as Heritage
    • Talks + symposia
      • Innovative Approaches to Conservation
      • Conservation Data and Digital Asset Management
      • Moving Responsibilities: The Care of Performance-Based Sculpture
      • The Invention of Glory: A Symposium
      • The Plus/Minus Dilemma: The Way Forward in Environmental Guidelines

Creating + Conserving

  • Browse this content
  • What is conservation?
    • Art Conservation Behind the Scenes
    • What does a conservator do?
    • Tools of the Trade
    • Scientific research glossary of terms
    • Conservation glossary of terms
  • The conservator’s eye
    • The conservator’s eye: Marble statue of a wounded warrior
    • The conservator’s eye: Taddeo Gaddi, Saint Julian
    • The conservator’s eye: a stained glass Adoration of the Magi
    • The conservator’s eye: Rembrandt, Aristotle with a Bust of Homer
    • The conservator’s eye: Madame Cézanne in the Conservatory
    • The conservator’s eye: Anselm Kiefer, Bohemia Lies by the Sea
  • Painting
    • Materials and techniques
      • Browse this content
      • Tempera paint
      • Oil paint in Venice
      • Renaissance Watercolours: materials and techniques
      • Gold-ground panel painting
      • How to stretch a large canvas
      • Almost Invisible: The Cartoon Transfer Process
      • Investigating Rothko’s Technique
    • About color
      • Browse this content
      • Making Purple: The Science of Art
      • Making Green: Tempera versus Oil
      • The Alchemy of Color and Chemical Change in Medieval Manuscripts
    • How to paint like…
      • Browse this content
      • How to paint like Willem de Kooning
      • How to paint like Franz Kline
      • How to paint like Yayoi Kusama
      • How to paint like Agnes Martin
      • How to paint like Jackson Pollock
      • How to paint like Barnett Newman
      • How to paint like Ad Reinhardt
      • How to paint like Mark Rothko
    • Art terms in action
      • Browse this content
      • Art Terms in Action: Paint
      • Art Terms in Action: Turpentine Burn
      • Art Terms in Action: Palette Knife
      • Art Terms in Action: Tint, Shade, and Tone
      • Art Terms in Action: Emulsion
      • Art Terms in Action: Enamel
      • Art Terms in Action: Stain
      • Art Terms in Action: Viscosity
    • Conserving
      • Remaking a fourteenth-century triptych
      • Conservation of paintings
      • Conservation: portrait miniatures
      • Ghent Altarpiece project overview
      • Conserving a portrait of King Edward VI
      • Jan Gossart – Conservation Discoveries
      • Conserving Velázquez’s Portrait of Philip IV
      • Conserving Flowers in a Glass Vase
      • Michael Gallagher on Everhard Jabach and His Family
      • Conserving the Virgin of Guadalupe
      • Conserving Vincent van Gogh’s Field with Irises near Arles
      • Van Gogh’s Enclosed Field with Ploughman under raking light
      • The Science of Van Gogh’s Bedrooms
      • Restoring Rothko
      • Conserving Flowers in a Glass Vase
      • Conserving Cuzco School Paintings
  • Sculpture
    • Making
      • Carving Marble with Traditional Tools
      • Quarrying and carving marble
      • Medieval goldsmiths – Treasures of Heaven at the British Museum
      • Making a Spanish polychrome sculpture
      • Bronze casting using the lost-wax technique
      • Bronze casting using the direct lost-wax method
      • Working jade
    • Conserving
      • The Conservation of Tullio Lombardo’s Adam
      • Object Conservation – Salisbury Cross
      • Conservation: Cast of the Pórtico de la Gloria
      • Contemporary Art Conservation at Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum
      • Conservation: The Nasrid plasterwork collection at the V&A
      • Conservation: Tipu’s Tiger
      • Conserving The Wolsey Angels
  • Prints, drawings, and manuscripts
    • Printmaking
      • Browse this content
      • Introduction to printmaking
      • Introduction to relief printmaking
      • Relief process
      • Introduction to intaglio
      • Intaglio process
      • Lithography process
      • Introduction to lithography
    • Making and conserving manuscripts and drawings
      • Making manuscripts
      • Renaissance Watercolours: materials and techniques
      • Drawing with Charcoal: Historical Techniques of 19th-Century France
      • Science and Paper: Conserving a Drypoint by Michael Heizer
      • Conserving Old Master Drawings
      • Henri Matisse: Conserving The Swimming Pool
  • Photographs
    • Making
      • Browse this content
      • Before photography (1 of 12)
      • The Daguerreotype (2 of 12)
      • Talbot’s Processes (3 of 12)
      • The Cyanotype (4 of 12)
      • The Collodion process
      • The Albumen Print (6 of 12)
      • The Platinum Print (7 of 12)
      • The Pigment Processes (8 of 12)
      • The Woodburytype (9 of 12)
      • The Gelatin Silver Process (10 of 12)
      • Color Photography (11 of 12)
      • Digital Photography (12 of 12)
  • Ceramic and lacquer
    • Making
      • What is ceramic art?
      • Greek Vase-Painting, an introduction
      • Ancient Greek vase production and the black-figure technique
      • Making Greek vases
    • Conserving
      • Conservation: Korean lacquer
  • Mosaic, metalwork and glass
    • Making
      • Glassmaking technique: free-blown glass
      • Mold-blown Glass
      • Ancient and Byzantine Mosaic Materials
      • Medieval Goldsmiths
      • Enamelling
      • The Electrotyping Process
      • How were micromosaics made?
  • Textiles
    • Making
      • The art of making a tapestry
    • Conserving
      • William Morris, The Bullerswood Carpet
      • Conserving the Emperor’s Carpet
      • Conservation of the Ardabil Carpet: the oldest dated carpet in the world
      • Conservation: Indian jama
  • Frames
    • Choosing
      • Framing Christina’s World by Andrew Wyeth
    • Conserving
      • Behind the scenes of the framing department at The National Gallery, London
      • Van Dyck’s Self-portrait: The Frame and its Conservation
  • Architecture
    • Conserving
      • Kasbah Taourirt: Conserving Earthen Heritage in Morocco
  • Conservation Reel archive
    • What is conservation?
      • Lab Tour: Conservation Science
      • IMA Conservation: Examining a Work
      • IMA Conservation: The Oddy Test
      • IMA Conservation: Documentation Imaging
      • IMA Conservation: 5 Questions with Richard McCoy
      • IMA Conservation: 5 Questions with Linda Witkowski
      • IMA Conservation: 5 Questions with Kristen Adsit
      • IMA Conservation: 5 Questions with Gregory Smith
      • IMA Conservation: 5 Questions with David Miller
      • IMA Conservation: 5 Questions with Amanda Holden
      • IMA Conservation: 5 Questions with Aaron Steele
    • Manuscripts and works on paper
      • How to Examine a Work on Paper
      • Wrapping Paper Objects for Hand Transport
    • Painting
      • Conservation Notes: Tom Thomson’s The West Wind
      • Finding the Lost Crucifix in a Perugino Panel Painting
      • Finding the Original Context of Rosselli’s Kneeling Angel
      • Examining a Panel Painting
      • IMA Conservation: Cleaning a Painting
      • IMA Conservation: Pigment Analysis with XRF Spectrometry
      • What X-Rays of a Vivarini Reveal About Its Past
      • Examining a Veronese with XRF Spectrometry
      • Sebastiano Mainardi: The Science of Art Installation, Behind the Scenes
    • Sculpture + installation
      • Lab Tour: Objects and Variable Art
      • Preserving Art: Tara Donovan’s Untitled (Plastic Cups)
      • Tara Donovan’s Untitled (Mylar)
      • Artist Max Dean on the conservation of As Yet Untitled
      • Talking Chaos with Roland Wetzel
      • A Conversation with Robert Irwin on Light and Space III
      • IMA Conservation: The Lightbulbs in Light and Space III
      • Evidence of Lost Wax Casting
    • Textiles
      • IMA Conservation: Preparing a Mola Garment for Display
      • IMA Conservation: Preparing Mola Textiles for Display
    • Frames
      • Examining a 17th-century frame
    • Architecture
      • The Making of the Bartholomew County Veterans Memorial
      • Modern Architecture as Heritage
    • Talks + symposia
      • Innovative Approaches to Conservation
      • Conservation Data and Digital Asset Management
      • Moving Responsibilities: The Care of Performance-Based Sculpture
      • The Invention of Glory: A Symposium
      • The Plus/Minus Dilemma: The Way Forward in Environmental Guidelines

How to paint like Willem de Kooning

by Corey D'Augustine

Learn how to paint like Willem de Kooning, one of the key artists of the postwar Abstract Expressionist style, also referred to as “action painting.”

Video from The Museum of Modern Art

Cite this page as: Corey D'Augustine, "How to paint like Willem de Kooning," in Smarthistory, May 5, 2017, accessed September 30, 2023, https://smarthistory.org/how-to-paint-like-willem-de-kooning/.
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BIPOC Reader: Teaching Practices and Strategies

October 18, 1:00–1:30 pm ET

"Not your grandfather’s art history: a BIPOC Reader" is a free, digital art history resource that provides more than 20 essays that seek to re-route the traditional narratives of art history with Europe and whiteness at its center. Join Dr. Maya Harakawa for this teaching webinar.

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