De Kooning:
A Retrospective
Sept. 18–Jan. 9
Museum of Modern Art
212-708-9400
moma.org
The Museum of Modern
Art’s Willem de Kooning
exhibit not only is the first
survey of his work in all
media since 1983, when he
was still painting, but also
is the largest retrospective
by a major museum and the
first exhibit ever to take over
the entire 17,000-square-
foot sixth floor of MoMA. All
that real estate will be the
temporary home to breakthrough de Kooning paintings such as the sumptuous
Pink Angels, the jagged
maelstrom Excavation and
the Venus-of-Willendorf-meets-Picasso third Woman
series. Hundreds of other
works (many from private
collections and little seen in
public) include the abstract
expressionist Dutch master’s
early academic studies from
the Netherlands, black-and-white paintings from the
’40s, sculpture, drawings
and Labyrinth, a backdrop
painted for a dance performance in 1946.
Willem de Kooning
(American, born the Netherlands, 1904-1997)
Woman, 1950
Oil, cut and pasted paper on cardboard, 14 3/4 x 11 5/8" ( 37. 5 x 29. 5 cm)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. From the Collection of
Thomas B. Hess, Gift of the heirs of Thomas B. Hess, 1984
© 2011 The Willem de Kooning Foundation /Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
