Skip to content
Back Home
Smarthistory Logo
  • About
      • ABOUT SMARTHISTORY
      • What is Smarthistory?
      • Who is Smarthistory?
      • Is Smarthistory reliable?
      • Museum and institutional partners
      • Major donors
      • Press coverage
      • Our blog
      • Give us feedback
      • Contact us

      • At Smarthistory, the Center for Public Art History, we believe art has the power to transform lives and to build understanding across cultures. We believe that the brilliant histories of art belong to everyone, no matter their background.

        With 503 contributors from 201 colleges, universities, museums, and research centers, Smarthistory is the most-visited art history resource in the world.

  • For Learning
      • ART HISTORIES
      • Start here
      • Prehistoric
      • Africa
      • Americas
      • Asia
      • Ancient Mediterranean + Europe
      • Medieval Europe + Byzantine
      • The Islamic World
      • Europe 1300–1800
      • Europe 1800–1900
      • Pacific Islands
      • Modernisms 1900–1980
      • Art since 1980
      • TOPICS & COURSES
      • Art Appreciation
      • AP® Art History
      • A-Level Art History
      • History of photography
      • Creating and conserving
      • SPECIAL PROJECTS
      • The U.S. Civil War in Art
      • Seeing America
      • Not your grandfather’s art history: a BIPOC Reader
      • ARCHES: At-risk Cultural Heritage
      • Expanding the Renaissance
      • Across Cultures
      • Virtual Visits
  • Books
      • SMARTHISTORY BOOKS
      • Reframing Art History, a new kind of textbook
      • Guide to Byzantine Art
      • Guide to Ancient Roman Art
      • Guide to AP® Art History vol. 1 (#1–47)
      • Guide to AP® Art History vol. 2 (#48–98)
      • Guide to AP® Art History vol. 3 (#99–152)
      • See complete collection of titles
      • NEW TITLES
        • reframing art history cover smReframing Art History
          a new kind of textbook
        • Byzantine cover jpgGuide to Byzantine art
  • For Teaching
      • TOOLS FOR TEACHING
      • All content for teaching
      • Webinars past & present
      • Teaching with images: K-12
      • Syllabi
      • Do-it-yourself tools
        • UPCOMING EVENT
          • Dr. Elena FitzPatrick Sifford on casta paintings

            Check back for upcoming events

        • PAST EVENT
          • Dr. Elena FitzPatrick Sifford on casta paintings

            Apr.06.2022

            The Kaaba with Dr. Nancy Demerdash

  • Support
      • SUPPORT SMARTHISTORY
      • Donate
      • Contribute an essay

      • We created Smarthistory to provide students around the world with the highest-quality educational resources for art and cultural heritage—for free.

  • Search
Search

All Results

Generic filters
Search in excerpt
Search

over here

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 June 7, 2023, https://smarthistory.org/how-to-paint-like-willem-de-kooning/.

Flickr IconBrowse Smarthistory images for teaching & learning! 

Sign up for our newsletter!

Receive occasional emails about new Smarthistory content.

Smarthistory is a nonprofit organization

At Smarthistory we believe art has the power to transform lives and to build understanding across cultures. We believe that the brilliant histories of art belong to everyone, no matter their background. Smarthistory’s free, award-winning digital content unlocks the expertise of hundreds of leading scholars, making the history of art accessible and engaging to more people, in more places, than any other publisher.

  • Donate
  • Contact Us
facebook icon
twitter icon
instagram icon
youtube icon
flickr icon
  • About Smarthistory
  • Smarthistory’s blog
  • Contribute an essay
  • Content editors and contributors

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

· © 2023 Smarthistory · Powered by · Designed with the Customizr theme ·