Publisher's Synopsis
The legendary Abstract Expressionist painter Willem de Kooning and his wife, artist and critic Elaine Fried, matched each other drink for drink, lover for lover, and blow for blow throughout an "open" marriage that was really a 40-year war against the status quo in life and in art. They staged their battles with passion and elan from shabby Greenwich Village studios and bar rooms to glittering gallery openings and Hamptons parties, and embraced Jackson Pollack and his wife, Lee Krasner, and all the other major players in the turbulent drama of post-war American art. Together and apart, Bill and Elaine reigned as the premier couple of their volatile circle and irrevocably reshaped America's cultural vista.;This account of their unique and enduring partnership is a look at two indelible characters and the art world they forged, by a fellow artist nad intimate member of their set.
