Elaine de Kooning (1918 - 1989) was an American Expressionist painter and wife of Willem de Kooning. De Kooning was born in Brooklyn, NY and attended Hunter college, the Leonardo da Vinci Art School in Hoboken, NJ and the American Artists school. Her early work was inspired by cubist art but she was inspired by animal forms she found while visiting prehistoric caves in Northern Spain and Southern France.
A great deal of her energy was devoted to supporting her husband's painting career Considered by some the voice of Abstract Expressionism, Elaine de Kooning was an articulate defender of the movement. She wrote numerous insightful pieces about her fellow artists. As a critic for ARTnews, she reviewed the work of Arshile Gorky, Franz Kline, David Smith, Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, and Josef Albers, among others. Throughout her life, de Kooning taught at numerous colleges including Yale University and the Parsons New School for Design. Her paintings are included in the collections of major American museums, such as the Guggenheim Museum and The Museum of Modern Art. De Kooning died on February 1st, 1989 in Southampton, NY.

Elaine de Kooning was featured in solo shows at Carnegie International Art Institute of Chicago, Hirshhorn Museum in Washington D.C., Guild Hall in East Hampton and several more.