Asheville News

de Kooning’s painting ‘Asheville’ to be released as stamp by U.S. Postal Service

Jason Sandford September 6, 2009

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

Willem de Kooning’s abstract paining Asheville will be released as a stamp next September. How cool is that?

I don’t know much about de Kooning, or his connection with Black Mountain College. But his Asheville is growing on me.

From the Ventura County Star, which lists all the stamp releases:

September: 10 stamps featuring abstract expressionists (Hans Hofmann’s “The Golden Wall,” Adolph Gottlieb’s “Romanesque Facade,” Mark Rothko’s “Orange and Yellow,” Arshile Gorky’s “The Liver is the Cock’s Comb,” Clyfford Still’s “1948-C,” Willem de Kooning’s “Asheville,” Barnett Newman’s “Achilles,” Jackson Pollock’s “Convergence,” Robert Motherwell’s “Elegy to the Spanish Republic No. 34” and Joan Mitchell’s “La Grande Vallee 0”), Buffalo, N.Y.

Other cool up-and-coming stamps that caught my eye: A Calvin & Hobbes stamp, and Gene Autry and Roy Rogers stamps.

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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3 Comments

JBO September 19, 2009

Willem de Kooning’s ‘Asheville’ was painted in the summer of 1948 while he was teaching at the Black Mountain College. It is oil and enamel on cardboard, roughly 25 inches by 31 inches and resides in the Phillips Collection of Washington, D.C.

It is one of the first paintings to ever use the technique of engaging collage elements without using actual collage, and has references within the painting to both the old college and Lake Eden. It’s one of the best tributes ever made to Asheville via the world of Art.

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zen September 7, 2009

that is just *totally* cool! Thanks for the info, J!

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Fact Checker September 6, 2009

Where is the painting located?

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