Willem de Kooning’s piece “Untitled” (1977, 30 x 41 ½ inches, Oil on paper on board) demonstrates how abstract or expressionist painting is, at first glance, above all committed to exploring the possibilities of painting itself. In this piece, in other words, the viewer sees a radical commitment to separating painting from any type of distinguishable content. De Kooning’s piece, therefore, would seem to resemble something to the extent of meaninglessness or art for art’s sake. But in the radical rejection of any subject matter and only on his concentration on the possibilities of painting, de Kooning poses a deeper question: why does painting have to be about anything? De Kooning’s »Untitled« is an attempt to restrict or limit the potential of painting by challening the presupposition that the language of painting must be about something.
Whereas the visual elements of the painting can be shown to develop this thesis, it is also important to consider first the title of the work. By calling the piece »Untitled«, de Kooning seeks out the most generic name possible for his work. There are many traditions of untitled works, but in this gesture, de Kooning underscores the major thrust of his work: the separation of the painting from some type of content. He does not want, in toher words, to have the painting being overburdened by some meaning by giving a more distinctive title, which would either influence the viewer’s perceptions of the work, or, on the other hand, intimate that there is a deeper meaning to the work itself.
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The content of the painting given in its title, which is a radical objection to any content whatsoever, is repeated in the visual techniques of the painting itself. In the work, the viewer sees a certain exploration of what painting can do when it is not bound to conventions of content and subject matter. In this sense, it is an exploration of potentialities that are inherent to the medium itself. The work thus employs different colors, not limiting itself in its choice. Any limitation of choice of color or the attempt to form a unified scheme of color would merely be a limitation of what painting can do. Instead, de Kooning explores the potentialities that are available to the painter. De Kooning’s color choice, in other words, is a conscious leaving behind of any notion of boundaries which tells the artist what he or she can create.
The brushstrokes of color also vary. De Kooning mainly uses broader brushstrokes. This could be interpreted as the artist asserting his or her autonomy and strength, boldly declaring his or her creative power on the work itself. At the same time, there are more minimal brush strokes, which suggests that we also here the discreteness of the artist and the importance of detail. This is a synthesis namely of the autonomy and strength of the artist, but also the careful craftsmanship which defines painting as an art.
The previously mentioned lack of boundaries does not mean that the artist merely has to resign him or herself to chaos. This appears to be another crucial component of the work. To the extent that de Kooning explores potential in art, this would mean that there is also the potential within painting to create instances of order and focus. If this were not the case, this would mean that painting requires a subject matter, some clear content and title, so as to be able to create order: this would mean that painting has an internal limit and is not sufficient, it does not have an innate power in it. This is why there appears to be, despite the first glance chaotic nature of the work, a certain order and structure to the brushstrokes. At the center left of the piece for example, lies a white void, which is ultimately empty, although infected with different strains of colors, but it nevertheless stands out in terms of the brush strokes of the piece. It is as though de Kooning arranges his other brush strokes around this empty space in the middle of the painting. This focal point gives a structure to the piece, as the brushstrokes appear to be arranged around this piece.
At the same time, this void in the painting’s center is also accompanied by two other parts of the painting which have appeared to not been painted or lack color, too other voids, which are not framed, but are on the exteriority of the canvas. On the one hand, this adds to the structure of the painting, creating clear zones of color and the absence of the color, these voids could also be read as reflections on the underlying potential of the artist and the painting, to the extent that all paintings are in a sense always unfinished. There are always hidden potentialities which emerge in the work and which the artist can continue to develop, even in the case of a finished work, namely, the work of the artist is not finished, because this would mean that there is a limitation to the work created and imposed on the painting by the painter him or herself.
De Kooning’s painting in one sense is defiant. It forces us to consider a freedom of art, a freedom of painting. Painting, in other words, is its own worlds and creates its own worlds: it does not need any exterior support such a subject matter, so as to give birth to a new world.
