Willem de Kooning April 1904-March 1997 was an abstract expressionist, he adopted the style that emerged out of the post World War 2 period, Abstract Expressionism or 'action painting'. He was one of the more prominent members of the art movement, behind Jackson Pollock, de Kooning's pictures typify the vigorous gestural style of the movement, it could be argued that de Kooning, perhaps, did more than of his fellow artists to develop a radically abstract style of painting that fused together the beliefs the movement held.
De Kooning strongly opposed the restrictions that naming an art movement placed upon the artist, so, while generally considered to be an Abstract Expressionist, de Kooning never abandoned the figure completely within his work, instead , his paintings of women depict a unique blend of gestural abstraction and figuration.
