16 Property from a Private Collection Willem de Kooning Untitled XXVIII 1977 oil on canvas 60 x 54 in. (152.4 x 137.2 cm) Signed "de Kooning" on the reverse.
Provenance Xavier Fourcade, New York Private Collection Gagosian Gallery, New York Acquired from the above by the present owner Exhibited Houston, Janie C. Lee Gallery, Major Pictures, October 1978 Seattle, Richard Hines Gallery, Willem de Kooning Paintings, Sculpture, Drawings, January 23 – March 8, 1980 Lisbon, Embassy of the United States, 1981 Washington, D.C., Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Five Distinguished Alumni, The W.P.A. Federal Art Project: An Exhibition Honoring the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Centennial, January 21 - February 22, 1982, later traveled to East Hampton, Guild Hall (March 13 – April, 1982) Video Willem de Kooning 'Untitled XXVIII', 1977 "This painting is the complex and brilliant culmination of de Kooning's years observing and internalizing the landscape around him in his home and studio on Long Island's East End. Here, he's painting the landscape from within, as if from the inside looking out.." Phillips' Senior Advisor Arnold Lehman discusses Willem de Kooning's 'Untitled XXVIII', 1977 in advance of our 20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale on 8 November at 7pm in New York. Catalogue Essay “Then there is a time in life when you just take a walk: And you walk in your own landscape.” Willem de Kooning Willem de Kooning spent his entire artistic career exploring the lustrous tactility of oil paint--pushing, pulling and scraping paint in search of the perfect moment, one of balanced tension and retention. The mid-1970s saw de Kooning produce a body of work that captured his absorption in the natural world of Springs, East Hampton, New York. Untitled XXVIII, 1977, rendered in creamy yellows, crisp whites and sky blues, seizes a glimpse of the landscape in an inspired attempt to hold onto the temporal chaos of the sand, wind, and sky. Untitled XXVIII fuses the anthropomorphic and the natural, the abstracted landscape containing incipient human shapes. The underpinning of every canvas, every visceral brush stroke, whether figural or natural, reveals de Kooning’s impulsive painterly actions. De Kooning’s life long affair with his landscape is undeniable throughout the 1950’s and 60’s, culminating with this miraculous series of landscapes of 1977 in which the present lot is included. The late paintings of the 1970s have broken free from the topographic and narrative contexts of other Hamptons inspired canvases that have titles such as Clam Digger and Back Porch. Moving away from allusions to themes of summer vacation, his compositions tend to avoid the representational with a simple Untitled. At this point de Kooning has spent over 10 years in the Springs and his interest in his surrounds have vigorously reemerged, explaining “When I moved into this house, everything seemed self evident…The space, the light, the trees --- I just accepted it without thinking about it much. Now I look around with new eyes, I think it’s all a kind of miracle.” The importance of landscape painting for de Kooning finds its roots in the sweeping seascapes of J.M. Turner. The luminosity of Turner’s salty scenes is echoed within the slippery consistency of de Kooning’s brush strokes while his admiration for vigorous and adept brush work is gleaned from the visceral paintings of Chaim Soutine, whose portraits, landscapes and still lives, particularly his depictions of butchered meat are defined by their electrically charged aesthetic. In order to fuse these two desired artistic effects de Kooning began with a layer of “lead white paint which he would sand down until the surface became almost translucence.” Within the supple, luminous white of de Kooning’s paintings, Turner’s vaporous snowstorms and sea storms come to mind, lost in a deluge of beautiful and temporal forms. Between the snow and the air, the wind and the sea, comes the natural sublime, which de Kooning was eager to return to in 1977. De Kooning explained to Harold Rosenberg in 1972, “I wanted to get back to a feeling of light in painting …I wanted to get
16 Property from a Private Collection Willem de Kooning Untitled XXVIII 1977 oil on canvas 60 x 54 in. (152.4 x 137.2 cm) Signed "de Kooning" on the reverse.
Provenance Xavier Fourcade, New York Private Collection Gagosian Gallery, New York Acquired from the above by the present owner Exhibited Houston, Janie C. Lee Gallery, Major Pictures, October 1978 Seattle, Richard Hines Gallery, Willem de Kooning Paintings, Sculpture, Drawings, January 23 – March 8, 1980 Lisbon, Embassy of the United States, 1981 Washington, D.C., Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Five Distinguished Alumni, The W.P.A. Federal Art Project: An Exhibition Honoring the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Centennial, January 21 - February 22, 1982, later traveled to East Hampton, Guild Hall (March 13 – April, 1982) Video Willem de Kooning 'Untitled XXVIII', 1977 "This painting is the complex and brilliant culmination of de Kooning's years observing and internalizing the landscape around him in his home and studio on Long Island's East End. Here, he's painting the landscape from within, as if from the inside looking out.." Phillips' Senior Advisor Arnold Lehman discusses Willem de Kooning's 'Untitled XXVIII', 1977 in advance of our 20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale on 8 November at 7pm in New York. Catalogue Essay “Then there is a time in life when you just take a walk: And you walk in your own landscape.” Willem de Kooning Willem de Kooning spent his entire artistic career exploring the lustrous tactility of oil paint--pushing, pulling and scraping paint in search of the perfect moment, one of balanced tension and retention. The mid-1970s saw de Kooning produce a body of work that captured his absorption in the natural world of Springs, East Hampton, New York. Untitled XXVIII, 1977, rendered in creamy yellows, crisp whites and sky blues, seizes a glimpse of the landscape in an inspired attempt to hold onto the temporal chaos of the sand, wind, and sky. Untitled XXVIII fuses the anthropomorphic and the natural, the abstracted landscape containing incipient human shapes. The underpinning of every canvas, every visceral brush stroke, whether figural or natural, reveals de Kooning’s impulsive painterly actions. De Kooning’s life long affair with his landscape is undeniable throughout the 1950’s and 60’s, culminating with this miraculous series of landscapes of 1977 in which the present lot is included. The late paintings of the 1970s have broken free from the topographic and narrative contexts of other Hamptons inspired canvases that have titles such as Clam Digger and Back Porch. Moving away from allusions to themes of summer vacation, his compositions tend to avoid the representational with a simple Untitled. At this point de Kooning has spent over 10 years in the Springs and his interest in his surrounds have vigorously reemerged, explaining “When I moved into this house, everything seemed self evident…The space, the light, the trees --- I just accepted it without thinking about it much. Now I look around with new eyes, I think it’s all a kind of miracle.” The importance of landscape painting for de Kooning finds its roots in the sweeping seascapes of J.M. Turner. The luminosity of Turner’s salty scenes is echoed within the slippery consistency of de Kooning’s brush strokes while his admiration for vigorous and adept brush work is gleaned from the visceral paintings of Chaim Soutine, whose portraits, landscapes and still lives, particularly his depictions of butchered meat are defined by their electrically charged aesthetic. In order to fuse these two desired artistic effects de Kooning began with a layer of “lead white paint which he would sand down until the surface became almost translucence.” Within the supple, luminous white of de Kooning’s paintings, Turner’s vaporous snowstorms and sea storms come to mind, lost in a deluge of beautiful and temporal forms. Between the snow and the air, the wind and the sea, comes the natural sublime, which de Kooning was eager to return to in 1977. De Kooning explained to Harold Rosenberg in 1972, “I wanted to get back to a feeling of light in painting …I wanted to get
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
