◆ 13 PROPERTY FROM A DISTINGUISHED COLLECTION Willem de Kooning Follow Untitled II signed "de Kooning" on the reverse oil and newsprint on canvas 77 x 88 in. (195.6 x 223.5 cm.) Executed in 1980.
Provenance Johanna Liesbeth de Kooning Trust, New York Acquavella Galleries, New York Acquired from the above by the present owner Exhibited London, Royal Academy of Arts, A New Spirit in Painting , January 15 - March 18, 1981, no. 83, p. 220 (illustrated) New York, Gagosian Gallery, Willem de Kooning The Last Beginning , September 18 - October 27, 2007 (illustrated on an exhibition poster) Literature Willem de Kooning The Late Paintings, The 1980s , exh. cat., San Francisco Museum of Art and Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, 1995, no. 3, p. 13 (illustrated in English catalogue), no. 3, p. 13 (illustrated in Dutch catalogue) Gregory Montreuil, "Journey's End," Gay City News , October 13, 2007 (illustrated) Catalogue Essay With Untitled II the late Willem de Kooning presents us with a magnificent tour-de force of his painterly virtuosity. Free-flowing brushstrokes of deep violet traverse the monumental canvas, folding in and out out of passages of radiant white, luminous yellow, orange, crimson and vermillion paint – coalescing around the center of the canvas in a dynamic dance of pure form and color. Heralding the dawning of a significant new phase in de Kooning’s oeuvre, Untitled II displays the signature raw splashes of paint and frenetic energy of the artist’s “pastoral" allover abstractions from his apex years of the late1970s while simultaneously foreshadowing the infinite toned white and meandering ribbons of his iconic late output in the 1980s. Executed in 1980, this seminal painting also speaks to the pivotal moment of transition in de Kooning’s life and artistic practice for it was in this year - at the age of 76 - that de Kooning stopped drinking. While suffering from alcoholism and depression for most of the 1970s, the death of two critical supporters and confidantes, Harold Rosenberg and Thomas Hess, had led de Kooning on a severe downward spiral from 1978 onwards. A triumphant testament to de Kooning’s resolution to overcome a period of personal and creative crisis, Untitled II is notably one of less than ten paintings de Kooning completed in 1980 and was notably exhibited in the following year at the Royal Academy of Art’s A New Spirit in Painting exhibition in London. Willem de Kooning who rose to critical acclaim with his ferocious Women in the 1950s, was among the few principal figures of the Abstract Expressionist movement to see the 1980s. As art historian Robert Storr so aptly observed, “One would not have predicted for Willem de Kooning a great old age. Among the leading figures of a hard-living generation, he seemed by talent and by temperament to belong to a romantic tradition of artists whose work burned the physical and psychic fuel of their being with devastating speed and completeness” (Robert Storr, “A Painter’s Testament: De Kooning in the Eighties”, MoMA Magazine , Winter/Spring 1997, n.p.). The baroque painterly hedonism that characterized de Kooning’s mid-career paintings in the 1960s and 1970s stood in stark contrast to the deep anxiety that tormented de Kooning, his lifestyle taking a serious toll on his health and sometimes drastically reducing his productivity. As such, Untitled II attests to what Robert Storr has identified as the “nearly miraculous recovery of focus and ambition” de Kooning underwent after several years of episodic studio activity and marks the beginning of his celebrated final chapter, which he embark upon with newfound vigor in 1980. Situated at this pivotal turning point, Untitled II takes a unique position within de Kooning’s oeuvre. On the one hand, the heavily painterliness of the background and energetic sweeps of the brush evoke de Kooning’s universally celebrated “pastoral" allover abstractions from the late 1970s, calling in particular such masterpieces as Untitled XI , 1975 (Art Institute of Chicago) or Untitled XXV , 1977. On the other hand, the present work also exemplifies the new-found sense of luminosity and open-endedness that de Kooning would f
◆ 13 PROPERTY FROM A DISTINGUISHED COLLECTION Willem de Kooning Follow Untitled II signed "de Kooning" on the reverse oil and newsprint on canvas 77 x 88 in. (195.6 x 223.5 cm.) Executed in 1980.
Provenance Johanna Liesbeth de Kooning Trust, New York Acquavella Galleries, New York Acquired from the above by the present owner Exhibited London, Royal Academy of Arts, A New Spirit in Painting , January 15 - March 18, 1981, no. 83, p. 220 (illustrated) New York, Gagosian Gallery, Willem de Kooning The Last Beginning , September 18 - October 27, 2007 (illustrated on an exhibition poster) Literature Willem de Kooning The Late Paintings, The 1980s , exh. cat., San Francisco Museum of Art and Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, 1995, no. 3, p. 13 (illustrated in English catalogue), no. 3, p. 13 (illustrated in Dutch catalogue) Gregory Montreuil, "Journey's End," Gay City News , October 13, 2007 (illustrated) Catalogue Essay With Untitled II the late Willem de Kooning presents us with a magnificent tour-de force of his painterly virtuosity. Free-flowing brushstrokes of deep violet traverse the monumental canvas, folding in and out out of passages of radiant white, luminous yellow, orange, crimson and vermillion paint – coalescing around the center of the canvas in a dynamic dance of pure form and color. Heralding the dawning of a significant new phase in de Kooning’s oeuvre, Untitled II displays the signature raw splashes of paint and frenetic energy of the artist’s “pastoral" allover abstractions from his apex years of the late1970s while simultaneously foreshadowing the infinite toned white and meandering ribbons of his iconic late output in the 1980s. Executed in 1980, this seminal painting also speaks to the pivotal moment of transition in de Kooning’s life and artistic practice for it was in this year - at the age of 76 - that de Kooning stopped drinking. While suffering from alcoholism and depression for most of the 1970s, the death of two critical supporters and confidantes, Harold Rosenberg and Thomas Hess, had led de Kooning on a severe downward spiral from 1978 onwards. A triumphant testament to de Kooning’s resolution to overcome a period of personal and creative crisis, Untitled II is notably one of less than ten paintings de Kooning completed in 1980 and was notably exhibited in the following year at the Royal Academy of Art’s A New Spirit in Painting exhibition in London. Willem de Kooning who rose to critical acclaim with his ferocious Women in the 1950s, was among the few principal figures of the Abstract Expressionist movement to see the 1980s. As art historian Robert Storr so aptly observed, “One would not have predicted for Willem de Kooning a great old age. Among the leading figures of a hard-living generation, he seemed by talent and by temperament to belong to a romantic tradition of artists whose work burned the physical and psychic fuel of their being with devastating speed and completeness” (Robert Storr, “A Painter’s Testament: De Kooning in the Eighties”, MoMA Magazine , Winter/Spring 1997, n.p.). The baroque painterly hedonism that characterized de Kooning’s mid-career paintings in the 1960s and 1970s stood in stark contrast to the deep anxiety that tormented de Kooning, his lifestyle taking a serious toll on his health and sometimes drastically reducing his productivity. As such, Untitled II attests to what Robert Storr has identified as the “nearly miraculous recovery of focus and ambition” de Kooning underwent after several years of episodic studio activity and marks the beginning of his celebrated final chapter, which he embark upon with newfound vigor in 1980. Situated at this pivotal turning point, Untitled II takes a unique position within de Kooning’s oeuvre. On the one hand, the heavily painterliness of the background and energetic sweeps of the brush evoke de Kooning’s universally celebrated “pastoral" allover abstractions from the late 1970s, calling in particular such masterpieces as Untitled XI , 1975 (Art Institute of Chicago) or Untitled XXV , 1977. On the other hand, the present work also exemplifies the new-found sense of luminosity and open-endedness that de Kooning would f
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