The wife of Abstract Expressionist painter Willem de Kooning, Elaine de Kooning was a prominent artist in her own right and an important art critic who wrote early reviews and articles about Franz Kline, David Smith, Josef Albers and Arshile Gorky, among others. De Kooning worked in both abstract and figurative styles, and is known for her expressionist portraits, including John F. Kennedy on which she was working when he was assassinated. In her earlier abstract work, de Kooning concentrated on formal problems, such as the spatial relationship between objects across the picture plane, as in Black Mountain #6, executed at Black Mountain College where she and Willem lived during the summer of 1948, Willem teaching and Elaine studying with Josef Albers and Buckminster Fuller. Founded in North Carolina in 1933, Black Mountain College was one of the most important artistic experiments of the 20th century. Students were expected to design their own course of study, and a collaborative, interdisciplinary approach to the visual, literary and performing arts was emphasized. The faculty consisted of leading American artists, poets, musicians and architects, including Josef Albers, Franz Kline, Robert Motherwell, John Cage, Merce Cunningham, and Buckminster Fuller.