Willem de Kooning  

170 pages, 115 illustrations (16 in color)

MOMA Press release

The most comprehensive exhibition of Willem de Kooning's work ever assembled will be on view at The Museum of Modern Art from March 5 through April 27. It is intended as a look at the artist in mid-career, beginning with his first mature works in the Mid-1930'S and emphasizes pictures that have seldom if ever been shown in public. The Museum's Guest Director of the show, Thomas B. Hess, who has also written the accompanying monograph*, says that while the show does not attempt to define de Kooning's oeuvre nor its development, it demonstrates why many artists, critics, and collectors are convinced that Willem de Kooning has been and remains one of the most original, influential, and creative painters at work in the middle of our century. The exhibition of 147 works -- paintings, drawings, pastels, collages -- opened at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and then traveled to The Tate Gallery in London. Both European showings were under the auspices of the International Council of The Museum of Mcdem Art. After New York, where the exhibition has been installed by Alicia Legg, Associate Curator, Department of Painting and Sculpture, in collaboration with Mr, Hess, the exhibition will be seen at The Art Institute of Chicago and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art,