Door Cycle, 2006
Between 1964 and 1966, Willem de Kooning painted a series of female figures on hollow-core wood doors, which were later exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art, March 14 through May 26, 1996. The doors, which de Kooning used as painting surfaces had previously been installed in his studio; however, the artist was dissatisfied with them and had them replaced with sturdier doors.
After the hollow-core doors had been stored in his studio for years,
de Kooning decided to paint on them. The resulting works were called the Door Cycle. Using a door - an object charged with metaphoric values - as a painting surface seems particularly appropriate as its measurements correspond with the human size; at the same time its appearance and dimensions represent a painters canvas.
print catalog pages of entire project
Thinking about these formal and poetic qualities of a door, "Before the Law" by Franz Kafka come to mind, also works by Marcel Duchamp (door of "Etant donnés", 1948 50) and Joseph Beuys ("Door", 1954/56). With its flat, empty surface, light weight and painting-size, the mass-produced door panel seemed to be an appropriate contemporary product to make works in editions with. After two years of consideration, Edition Schellmann invited a group of artists to create works of art on prefabricated hollow-core doors. The resulting 16 works painting, object, silkscreen, sculpture, relief, and other techniques, on wood, glass, steel and even paper were produced in editions of 15 each.