Willem de Kooning

Exhibited by David Lévy & Associés

Material Oil on paper mounted on canvas

Dimensions 61 × 46.5 cm

Status Vetted

About the Work

In 1963, after establishing himself as one of the leading innovators of the postwar New York Abstract Expressionist movement, Willem de Kooning left the city for East Hampton on Long Island. Surrounded by the region’s quiet and natural beauty, he found renewed inspiration in his enduring theme of the female figure intertwined with landscape.

Unlike the confrontational, almost ferocious women of the previous decade, his paintings of the 1960s reveal a notable shift in tone and technique. In Woman on a Sign IV (1967), de Kooning adopts fluid brushwork, luminous color, and a sunlit atmosphere. Here, animated hues, loosely abstracted forms, and sweeping, liquid paint handling combine with suggestive poses to reenergize the primal vitality of his iconic Women series.

Exhibition History: New York, M. Knoedler & Co, de Kooning: Paintings and Drawings since 1963, novembre-décembre 1967. Berkeley, Powerhouse Gallery, University of California Berkeley, Willem de Kooning: the Recent Work, août-septembre 1969. Tokyo, Fuji Television Gallery; Paris, Galerie des Arts, Willem de Kooning, septembre-octobre 1975

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Provenance

Galerie des Arts, Paris
M. Knoedler & Co, New York
Private collection, acquired from the previous owner in 1997
Christie's Paris, Contemporary Art Evening Sale, December 8, 2015, lot n°14
Van de Weghe, New York
Private Collection, Belgium