-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Deceased Name: E. DE KOONING, ARTIST, TEACHER, COMMENTATOR
Artist and teacher Elaine de Kooning died Wednesday of lung cancer. She was 70.
In November, she was diagnosed as having cancer after she entered Jefferson Hospital in Philadelphia to be treated for Lyme disease. She had been hospitalized for the past two weeks and died around 4:30 a.m. Wednesday. Her works are in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim Museum in New York and are featured in other institutions throughout the country. ''I always say I'm an escape artist," she once told art critic Rose Slivka when asked to describe her style. "Style is something I've always tried to avoid. I'm more interested in character." She was married to Willem de Kooning, a renowned abstract expressionist. She was an art commentator and held professorships at the University of New Mexico, University of Pennsylvania and Yale University. She was born Elaine Catherine Fried in 1920. She attended Hunter College, then switched to the Leonardo da Vinci Art School in Manhattan, where she found friends active in the abstract and realism movements. At about this time, she met de Kooning. They were married Dec. 9, 1943, about five years after she had become his private student. Her first solo exhibition was in 1952 at the Stable Gallery in New York. Her most recent work was inspired by paleolithic cave paintings of Lascaux in France and Altamira in Spain. In addition to her husband and sister, survivors include two brothers, Conrad Fried of Manhattan and Peter Fried of Freeport. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- San Jose Mercury News (CA) Date: February 3, 1989 Edition: Morning Final Page: 5B Record Number: 8901100288 Copyright (c) 1989 San Jose Mercury News
