Elena Sainz, the artist's daughter, would like to share some of her memories, interesting stories, and photos about important artists that were close friends of Paco Sainz. They included Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Esteban Vicente, Lee Krasner, Lester Johnson, Alfred Leslie, and many others.
Elena shares some of her memories and photographs of one of the most important times in American art history.
Esteban Vicente
Esteban Vicente (1903-2001), abstract painter, collagist and one of the last surviving members of the New York School was a great friend of Francisco Sainz.
Two Great Abstract Expressionist Painters
Francisco and Esteban at Francisco's Home
Willem de Kooning
“Bill loved to hang out and drink with the Bonackers (the name of the locals, in East Hampton).
My ex husband's father was a printer for the East Hampton Star. He would tell me that he often....this was the eighties, would find de Kooning fallen off of his bicycle, too drunk to help himself....in the seventies. My father in law would put his bicycle in his car and drive De Kooning home. He had a disdain as did most of the locals for the art of de Kooning or Pollock. It made no sense to the locals.
But, Bill immersed himself with the locals, drank with them and I learned that my father, in his last days would hang out with a local guy on his road. This guy told me...."Elena, you have no idea of the important people who used to come to your father's house".....he lived in a little shack houses from my father.
What I found fascinating about Bill's bio is how he loved the locals and drank and socialized with THEM, while other artists were having important "parties" and social events solely for other New York artists. I think the drinking bill did made it easy for him to connect with the locals.”
Lisa De Kooning
“I remember my dad taking me to De Koonings studio in Springs/the Hamptons...it had just been built, and I remember how proud Bill was. I was friends with his only daughter, Lisa. This was a big deal....and it was in the mid sixties that that studio was even built, and having read the bio I realize that the studio was designed by another good friend of my father's...Athos Zacharias.”
Carlos Anduze (De Kooning’s Assistant)
“He [Carlos] told me that he used to take me and Lisa to Bridgehampton to this famous candy shop and we would just gorge on candy. He said he sort of had to hide it from my mother, because she wasn't crazy about the candy thing
He attended my father's funeral...he also had dinner with me and my brother...he was at the reception and he was a pall bearer for my father at his burial.”
