Willem de Looper

A noted American Post-War painter from Washington D.C. who exhibited with artists of the Washington Color School movement, Willem de Looper (1932–2009) created nuanced, lyrical paintings through the repeated staining of thin layers of acrylic paint on unprimed canvas.

De Looper’s stain paintings from the late 60’s and early 70’s are related to work of the founding Color School painters Morris Louis and Kenneth Noland, and to second generation artists Sam Gilliam and Tom Downing, among others. Focused on color, composition, and space, and inspired by the improvisational nature of jazz, de Looper explored visual depth through complex, layered forms and sumptuous color. Using the “soak stain” technique of applying paint, de Looper combined serendipity of chance and manipulation of the canvas to create each work by spreading wet into wet. Direct interventions into his surfaces involved brushes, sponges, and other tools for applying thinned down acrylics, while incidental accents and stress marks informed the works from sources such as his studio floor or other surfaces he worked against.

Willem de Looper was born in The Hague, Netherlands, in 1932 and came to the United States in 1950, settling in Washington, D.C. He studied art at American University, receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1957. Beginning in 1959, de Looper worked as a security guard for The Phillips Art Gallery (now The Phillips Collection), where his exposure to the works of both old masters as well as 20th century American modernists in the collection had a profound influence on his development. Beginning with his first solo exhibition in 1966 at the historic Jefferson Place Gallery in Washington, de Looper exhibited continuously in the United States and Europe, including over 30 solo exhibitions and numerous group presentations.

Willem de Looper’s paintings can be found in the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden; Smithsonian American Art Museum; American University Museum, Washington, D.C.; The Kreeger Museum, Washington, D.C.; Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, GA; and the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO; among others. Willem de Looper died in 2009.

This online exhibition has been organized in cooperation with the Frauke and Willem de Looper Foundation.