with each element in the installation—ranging from paperback
books to articles of clothing—reading as a real object with a
history. Freeman reflects on how his residency in a place with
such history affected his practice:
“The openness and light did inspire me to loosen up. I found
that often in the mornings I would just play around in ways
I had not done before. The studio in particular was designed to
let in a kind of painterly light I had never experienced in a work
environment. It started to have strange effects. There was a subtle
surrealism to the experience, because, the difference between
now and [de Kooning’s era] became very acute. Their world is
gone now.”
And yet, the work continues. The latest artist to unpack in
the de Kooning Studio is Dallas native Jason Willaford. New
work was created onsite for his forthcoming exhibition at Dallas
Contemporary. Willaford marks the first in what is to become
an annual initiative where Dallas-based artists take part in the
East Hampton program. These artists will connect with a new
community and wider audience.
Known for his three-dimensional paintings constructed from
vinyl billboards, Willaford cuts up this material, paints on it, and
then reconfigures and stitches it together in a manner reminiscent
of quilting. Recently he has come to photograph the final product
and only display the photograph—creating interplay between 2D
and 3D works.
Willaford’s new work plays with the notion of time and
our contemporary obsession with being busy. Examining how
current technologies have come to affect the way we experience
the passage of time, he sought to construct a visualization of
the 4th dimension—a reality running parallel to our own. At the
de Kooning Studio, Willaford used his natural surroundings
as a workshop where he twisted a vinyl sheet in order to create
“a winding picture plane of mercurial fluid through the East
Hampton woods.” From this sheet, Willaford cut out shapes
reminiscent of the icons for smart phone applications on which
he has created individual paintings. These works will be on view
at Dallas Contemporary in a solo show opening in September.
With the Dallas Art Fair, Chris Byrne’s efforts have been able
to bring the art world to Dallas. By inviting artists from the region
into de Kooning’s home for the expressed purpose of creation,
he positions another mirror to reflect and display the beating
pulse of the artistic heart in contemporary Dallas. Naturally, as
Elaine de Kooning was so much more than a painter and the
wife of one, it seems only fitting her home should find extended
life beyond her own time there, to bountifully serve and enrich
as she did. P
Jose Lerma used the studio to create a large-scale work. Jonah Freeman and Justin Lowe during their residency in Elaine de Kooning's
former studio.
