Art & Exhibitions
A de Kooning Homecoming! Rijksmuseum Preps Blockbuster
The revered painter's market is hot, and big loans are heading to his native Netherlands.
The revered painter's market is hot, and big loans are heading to his native Netherlands.
Margaret Carrigan ShareShare This Article
Willem de Kooning fever is running high.
Currently the subject of an acclaimed drawing show at the Art Institute of Chicago, the revered abstractionist will be toasted in his native Netherlands with a sweeping survey at the Rijksmuseum in October. With more than 120 works, the Amsterdam show will be the largest European exhibition of his work in four decades.
“Willem de Kooning at Work” traces the artist’s development over his 65-year career with drawing as its central thread, positioned not as a preparatory step but as the foundation of his practice. Pairing rarely seen works on paper with major paintings, like the Art Institute’s Excavation (1950), the survey will highlight recurring themes and his experimental techniques, like rapid pencil sketches and works that he made with his eyes closed.
Landmark paintings and sculptures will appear, including the Museum of Modern Art‘s Woman I (1950–52), and the Whitney Museum‘s Woman and Bicycle (1952–53), which will be displayed in the Rijksmuseum’s Gallery of Honor, the preserve of Old Masters like Vermeer and Rembrandt.
De Kooning was born in 1904 in Rotterdam, where he studied drawing at night and apprenticed at a decorative arts studio. In 1926, he stowed away on a cargo ship to the United States, settling in New York and working as a house painter, illustrator, and shop-window designer before turning to art full time. After his breakthrough in the late 1940s—he had his first solo show at 44—he became a key figure in the New York School alongside Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner, and Mark Rothko. He died in 1997 at the age of 92 in East Hampton.
Fenix, Rotterdam’s new art museum dedicated to migration, is also commemorating the centenary of de Kooning’s departure from his homeland. Starting July 18, three of his monumental bronze sculptures will be on temporary display on the quay in front of the museum.
The blockbuster museum shows are occurring as demand for de Kooning’s work has also been on the rise. Four out of his top 10 prices at auction came in the last five years, according to the Artnet Price Database; his record was set in 2018 when Woman as Landscape (1954–55) sold for $68.9 million with fees at Christie’s New York. That work was featured in Gagosian‘s massive de Kooning show in New York last year, curated by Cecilia Alemani, the director of High Line Art.