Which male artist was married to painter Elaine de Kooning?

Which male artist was married to painter Elaine de Kooning? Willem de Kooning was her husband.

Elaine Fried met Willem de Kooning in New York in 1938 after her teacher introduced them at a Manhattan cafeteria. Willem, already an accomplished Dutch-born artist, became an important influence on her development as a painter, while Elaine later built her own career as an artist, critic, teacher, and portraitist.

They married on December 9, 1943, and shared studio spaces in New York. Their relationship unfolded within the lively New York School art world, alongside figures such as Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner, Robert Motherwell, and Franz Kline.

Elaine and Willem separated in 1957 amid personal difficulties, including alcoholism, but they never divorced. They reunited in 1976. The question can cause confusion because Elaine de Kooning was herself a significant painter, not merely the spouse of a famous artist. Willem is best known for works including Woman I and for his role in Abstract Expressionism’s action-painting tradition.