A de Kooning Homecoming! Rijksmuseum Preps Blockbuster
Artnet News reports that the Rijksmuseum will mount a major Willem de Kooning survey in Amsterdam in October, featuring more than 120 works and billed as the largest European exhibition of his art in four decades. Titled “Willem de Kooning at Work,” the show traces his 65-year career with drawing presented as the foundation of his practice, alongside major paintings and experimental works such as rapid sketches and drawings made with his eyes closed. Key loans include MoMA’s “Woman I” (1950–52) and the Whitney’s “Woman and Bicycle” (1952–53), to be shown in the Rijksmuseum’s Gallery of Honor, and the Art Institute of Chicago’s “Excavation” (1950). The article also notes rising market demand, citing a 2018 Christie’s New York sale where “Woman as Landscape” (1954–55) realized $68.9 million (with fees), and adds that Rotterdam’s migration museum Fenix will display three monumental de Kooning bronze sculptures outdoors starting July 18 to mark the centenary of his 1926 departure from the Netherlands.
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This story was covered in Blockbusters, Crackdowns, and a Market Under Siege