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Français   Villa Borghese  Although often cited as the
originator of Action painting, an abstract, purely formal, and
intuitive means of expression, Willem de Kooning most often
worked from observable reality, primarily from figures and the
landscape. From 1950 to 1955 de Kooning completed his famous
Women series, integrating the human form with the agressive
paint application, bold colors, and sweeping strokes of Abstract
Expressionism. These female "portraits" provoked controversy not
only for their vulgar carnality and garish colors, but also
because of their embrace of figural representation, a choice
deemed regressive by many of de Kooning's Abstract Expressionist
contemporaries, but one to which he returned repeatedly over the
course of his career.  In the latter half of the 1950s de
Kooning turned to the landscape as the basis for a series of
abstract compositions. At first these reflected the urban
surroundings of his studio in downtown Manhatta