Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice Announces Major Exhibition of Willem de Kooning for 60th International Art Biennale Venice, Italy
April 17 - September 15, 2024

The Director of the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice Giulio Manieri Elia has announced that a major exhibition devoted to Willem de Kooning, among the most groundbreaking and influential artists of the 20th century, will open on April 17, 2024 to coincide with the launch of the 60th International Art Biennale. 

The exhibition will be the first to explore the impact of de Kooning’s two stays in Italy, in 1959 and 1969, on his work. The art he created in Italy and the influence of Italy on his subsequent paintings, drawings and sculpture in America have never before been thoroughly explored.  The lasting effect of these two creative periods will be revealed in an outstanding selection of works, ranging from the late 1950s through the 1980s. 

The exhibition is presented in collaboration with The Willem de Kooning Foundation.

The exhibition's curators are Gary Garrels and Mario Codognato.

Exhibition dates: April 17 – September 15, 2024 
Gallerie dell’Accademia, Calle della Carità, 1050, 30123 Venice

Press Enquiries:
Italian– Marsilio Arte
Giovanna Ambrosano, Vera Mantengoli | ufficio.stampa@marsilioarte.it | +39 3405021740

International– Bolton & Quinn
Erica Bolton | erica@boltonquinn.com | +44 20 7221 5000 | +44 77 1169 8186

John L. Eastman, 1939 - 2022 

The Willem de Kooning Foundation’s board of directors and staff mourn the loss of our esteemed Co-President, Member of the Board of Directors, and friend, John L. Eastman.

John was a steadfast champion of Willem de Kooning, generously driven to chronicle what he recognized as exceptional and of wonder so that others might experience the same.  With warmth, passion and unrivaled energy, as one of the Foundation’s original directors, John worked and collaborated to shape the Foundation’s on-going scholarly, educational and philanthropic programming.

He brought forth innumerable opportunities for loans and exhibitions in the US and abroad, and for giving to benefit de Kooning’s hometown of Springs in East Hampton, New York, contributing immensely to de Kooning’s legacy and to whom we are today as a foundation.

We offer our sincere and deepest condolences to John’s wife, Jodie, their children, grandchildren, extended family and friends, whom we know he held so dear. 

John will be greatly missed by all of us.

“Conserving de Kooning: Theft and Recovery” Getty Center, Los Angeles
June 7, 2022 – August 28, 2022

The Willem de Kooning Foundation is pleased to announce that Willem de Kooning’s painting Woman-Ochre, 1954-1955, is presented to the public for the first time in three decades as the centerpiece of the Getty’s exhibition, Conserving de Kooning: Theft and Recovery, which opened June 7, 2022.  This exhibition is organized in collaboration with The Willem de Kooning Foundation and the University of Arizona Museum of Art.  Highlighting painstaking recovery treatment of the work, the show celebrates the return of the Woman painting, stolen from the University of Arizona Museum of Art the day after Thanksgiving in 1985, and recovered in August 2017.  This conservation effort was led by Ulrich Birkmaier, Senior Paintings Conservator at the J. Paul Getty Museum, and Tom Learner, Head of Science at the Getty Conservation Institute, with Associate Paintings Conservator, Laura Rivers.  The exhibition will be on display until August 28, 2022, when the painting will return home.  The University of Arizona’s Museum will hold a parallel exhibition, Restored:  The Return of Woman-Ochre, in October 2022.

Go to the Getty's website. 

The Brooklyn Rail Celebrates Willem de Kooning on the 25th Anniversary of his Passing 
March 19, 2022

Commemorating the 25th anniversary of Willem de Kooning’s passing on March 19, 1997, the Brooklyn Rail, in collaboration with The Willem de Kooning Foundation, hosted a New Social Environment conversation in his honor.  The celebratory gathering was moderated by the Rail’s Publisher and Artistic Director, Phong H. Bui, with an opening remark by the Foundation’s Executive Director, Amy Schichtel.  Featured guest speakers were John Elderfield, Joan Levy Hepburn, David Reed, Richard Shiff, Mark Stevens, Robert Storr, Charles Stuckey, Annalyn Swan, and Flora Yukhnovich. 

The online event which took place on Zoom at 4PM EST, Saturday, March 19, 2022, was recorded and can now be viewed on the Rail's Youtube channel: https://brooklynrail.org/events/2022/03/19/ode-to-willem-de-kooning/. 
 

"de Kooning / Shiraga" Mnuchin Gallery, New York
February 15, 2022 - April 16, 2022

Mnuchin Gallery presents the exhibition de Kooning / Shiraga in collaboration with Fergus McCaffrey.  This is the first opportunity for a side by side look at works by de Kooning and Japanese painter Kazuo Shiraga, a leader of the Gutai movement. The exhibition at once highlights the artists’ distinct experimentations with abstraction during their later careers and offers the chance to consider the global reach of abstract expressionism. The exhibition will be on display from February 15 to April 16, 2022 and is accompanied by an illustrated catalogue with essays by Pepe Karmel and Fergus McCaffrey.

Go to Mnuchin Gallery's wesbite. 

Symposium: Quand New York regarde l’École de Paris Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris
November 30, 2021

On the occasion of the exhibition Chaïm Soutine / Willem de Kooning, la peinture incarnée, the Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris, has organized a virtual symposium exploring the impact of the École de Paris on abstract expressionist artists of the New York School.  The event brings together several scholars, including exhibition curators Claire Bernardi and Simonetta Fraquelli, as well as MoMA’s Emeritus Chief Curator of Paintings and Sculpture, John Elderfield, in discussion of the role Soutine and his contemporaries played in the development of postwar American artists.  This presentation promises to enlighten new perspectives on this bicontinental conversation.  The symposium, which will be held in English, will take place from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM (GMT+1) on November 30, 2021. 

To view the full program and register, please click here.

"Chaïm Soutine / Willem de Kooning, la peinture incarnée" Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris
September 15, 2021 - January 10, 2022

The Willem de Kooning Foundation is pleased to announce that Chaïm Soutine / Willem de Kooning, la peinture incarnée, organized by the Barnes Foundation and the Musées d’Orsay et de l’Orangerie, Paris, opened at its second venue, the Musée de l’Orangerie, on September 15, 2021.  Comprising nearly 45 paintings, the installation presents a visual dialogue between Soutine’s vivid expressionism and de Kooning’s groundbreaking works from the 1940s and beyond.  The exhibition also explores de Kooning’s experiences viewing the elder artist’s work at the 1950 Museum of Modern Art’s Soutine retrospective and during his visit to the Barnes in 1952. 

Chaïm Soutine / Willem de Kooning, la peinture incarnée is the first exhibition to focus exclusively on these two artists and will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue with essays in both French and English.  The show previously titled Soutine / de Kooning: Conversations in Paint was on view at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia until August 8, 2021.

Go to Musée de l’Orangerie website.
 

Willem de Kooning: An Artist's Foundation for Giving 
December 23, 2020

In this time of giving, Jennifer Landes of The East Hampton Star sets her focus on the Foundation’s critical financial support of local organizations in de Kooning's hometown of Springs and the East End amid the Covid-19 pandemic.  Landes has provided an overview of the Foundation's history and programs as context.

by Jennifer Landes
The East Hampton Star
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COVID-19 Relief Efforts 

The Willem de Kooning Foundation has actively engaged in the financial support of our community in response to the urgent needs arising from this unprecedented health and financial crisis. 

The Tri-State Relief Fund to Support Non-Salaried Workers in the Visual Arts

The Willem de Kooning Foundation, the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Teiger Foundation, and the Cy Twombly Foundation, as part of their respective COVID-19 relief efforts, have established an emergency relief grant program that will provide $1,250,000 in aid to Tri-State non-salaried workers in the visual arts who have experienced financial hardship from lack of income or opportunity as a direct result of the COVID-19 crisis. The program, initiated by The Willem de Kooning Foundation, will be administered in partnership with nonprofit arts service organization New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA).

Speaking on behalf of the four foundations, Amy Schichtel, Executive Director of the de Kooning Foundation, said: “We all rely on the expertise of these dedicated, hardworking individuals. We feel the imperative to acknowledge their importance by helping them get through this difficult time.”

The fund will distribute one-time, unrestricted cash grants of $2,000 each to freelance, contract, or non-salaried archivists, art handlers, artist/fine art photographer’s assistants, cataloguers, database specialists, digital assets specialists, image scanners/digitizers, and registrars.

UPDATE as of November 12, 2020:  The Tri-State Relief Fund to Support Non-Salaried Workers in the Visual Arts has been extended for a 4th cycle opening on Wednesday, November 18, 2020.  In addition, this 4th cycle will also accept applications from freelance, contract, or non-salaried arts educators, arts publication editors, and arts curators.

Those interested in donating to the fund may do so here.

All questions should be addressed to NYFA at freelance@nyfa.org, rather than to any one of the individual foundations.

The Foundation’s Additional Ongoing COVID-19 Relief Efforts

The Foundation has made financial contributions to the United States Artist Relief Fund, the Foundation for Contemporary Art’s COVID-19 Relief Fund, the Swiss Institute’s Emergency Support Fund for 15 NYC Nonprofit Contemporary Art Organizations, and to local organizations supporting basic needs in Springs, Long Island where de Kooning lived and worked for three decades.  In addition, the Foundation has pledged up to $50,000 in the form of a challenge, dollar for dollar, grant to LongHouse Reserve and Sculpture Garden where we have de Kooning’s monumental bronze, Reclining Figure, 1969 – 1982, on long term loan. 

The Willem de Kooning Foundation does not award individual grants and is unable to accommodate unsolicited grant or funding requests.  Due to high volume, we are unable to respond to inquiries of this nature.  For lists of available COVID-19 relief grants, please see NYFA and Americans for the Arts directories.

de Kooning Conversation NYU School of Law, New York
February 20, 2020

The New York University Law School held a conversation, between artist and teacher Joan Levy Hepburn, who was personally mentored by Willem de Kooning for more than two decades, and Richard Shiff, the Cain Regents Chair in Art at The University of Texas at Austin, and author of Between Sense and de Kooning.

This event was sponsored by The Willem de Kooning Foundation as part of our ongoing series, de Kooning Conversations.  As an eyewitness, Levy Hepburn presented her first-hand glimpse into de Kooning’s methods, philosophies and who he was as an artist, person and friend. Shiff served as interviewer while offering his own insights from almost three decades of studying de Kooning’s work. What makes for a creative spark, no matter the medium was up for question. Willem de Kooning’s 1985 painting, The Key and the Parade, is on long term loan to the law school library from The Willem de Kooning Foundation. It will serve as subject and inspiration for what we anticipate to be a lively conversation. 

The discussion took place on Thursday, February 20th at 6:00pm at NYU Law Library’s Vanderbilt Hall. 

"The Key and the Parade" NYU School of Law, New York
September 2019

The Willem de Kooning Foundation is pleased to announce the two-year loan of The Key and the Parade to the New York University School of Law.  The 1985 painting, previously loaned through the Art in Embassies Program to the NATO Headquarters, the American Embassy in Brussels, and to the office of U.S. Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs in Washington D.C., is currently on view at NYU’s Law School library.  The work was unveiled at the NYU Law Library in the Vanderbilt Hall on Tuesday, October 1, 2019 at 6PM.

Go to NYU School of Law Calendar page

EAST ENDERS: A MUSIC FESTIVAL Arts Center at Duck Creek, East Hampton, New York
July 12 - 14 and September 6 - 8, 2019

The Art Center at Duck Creek has organized a two-weekend music festival, curated by former New York Times music critic Peter Watrous.  The program includes performances by jazz musicians recollecting the era of Abstract Expressionism.  As part of the first weekend, on Saturday, July 13th, 5:00 – 7:00 p.m., Duck Creek presents “DE KOONING, RIVERS & THE 5 SPOT”.  The evening explores jazz created and performed in New York between 1956-64 at The 5 Spot Café frequented by Willem de Kooning, Larry Rivers, and other New York school artists and writers. This performance features Josh Lawrence (trumpet), Caleb Curtis (saxophone), Marta Sanchez (piano), Jason Brown (drums), and Noah Garabedian (bass).


Go to the Arts Center at Duck Creek 2019 Events Page. 

"Artists I Steal From" Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London
June 5 - August 9, 2019

Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London has organized the show Artists I Steal From curated by contemporary artist Alvaro Barrington with gallery director Julia Peyton-Jones.  The exhibition gathers works by a diverse group of 49 artists that have directly influenced Barrington's art making process, techniques, and personal associations.  The Willem de Kooning Foundation is pleased to lend one of de Kooning's 1987 paintings for inclusion in the show.  The exhibition is on view from June 5 to August 9, 2019 and is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue.

Go to Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac's website.

"De Kooning: Five Decades" Mnuchin Gallery, New York
April 19 - June 15, 2019

De Kooning:  Five Decades was presented by the Mnuchin Gallery, New York.  It highlights key moments of de Kooning’s mature career.  Beginning with the women of the later 1940s and early 1950s, the exhibition explores de Kooning’s use of both figuration and abstraction from 1947 through 1983.  This is the Mnuchin’s eleventh de Kooning exhibition.  De Kooning: Five Decades is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue authored by Pepe Karmel.

Go to Mnuchin Gallery's wesbite. 

"Woman Ochre" Goes to the Getty 
April 2019

In collaboration with the University of Arizona Museum of Art, the Getty Museum and Getty Conservation Institute is undertaking conservation on Woman-Ochre, 1955-54, starting in April 2019.  This extensive conservation project will provide documentation to be used toward educational programming at local California universities and the University of Arizona.  The restored work will be temporarily exhibited at the Getty in the summer 2020, before returning to the UA Museum of Art.

Go to the Getty Museum's website.

de Kooning Conversations: Insiders Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
October 31, 2018

In the inaugural talk of The Willem de Kooning Foundation’s series de Kooning Conversations, of which phase I is Insiders, and in celebration of the long-term loan of Willem de Kooning’s monumental sculpture Reclining Figure, 1969-1982, the Foundation has partnered with Johns Hopkins University to welcome sculptor and artisan Vanessa Hoheb.  As a part of Hoheb Studios, Vanessa enlarged three of Willem de Kooning’s sculptures to mid-size and monumental size bronzes.  Using her first-hand knowledge, Vanessa will provide in-depth presentation of the enlargement process, followed by a discussion with Dr. Molly Warnock.  The talk will take place on Wednesday, October 31st at 5:00pm in Johns Hopkins’ Mudd Hall 26.  The event is free, but registration is requested at the following link.

Go to Johns Hopkins University’s website.

"Lineage: de Kooning and His Influence" Skarstedt Gallery, New York
September 13 - October 27, 2018

Skarstedt Gallery has organized an exhibition highlighting the impact of Willem de Kooning’s late works on six contemporary artists.  The exhibition, which furthers de Kooning’s legacy as one of the most innovative and influential artists of the 20th Century, offers three of de Kooning’s late paintings alongside works by artists Joe Bradley, George Condo, Brice Marden, Albert Oehlen, Sue Williams, and Christopher Wool.  The show is on view from September 13 to October 27, 2018 and will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue. 

[Go to Skarstedt Gallery's exhibition page.]

827-831 Broadway are Designated Historic Landmarks New York, NY
October 31, 2017

On October 31st the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission granted 827-831 Broadway landmark status. From 1958 to 1963, de Kooning lived and painted in a spacious, light-filled studio on the 4th floor of 831 Broadway. It was in this studio that he painted his celebrated “Pastorale” series, examples of which are held in museum collections around the world. At the Commission’s hearing on October 17th the Foundation’s Executive Director Amy Schichtel testified to the buildings’ cultural significance as a hub for downtown artists during the cultural transformation of New York City. 

[Go to Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation website.]

“de Kooning: Late Paintings” Skarstedt Gallery, London
October 4 - December 16, 2017

Skarstedt Gallery has organized an exhibition of Willem de Kooning’s oil paintings from the 1980s. This is the gallery’s second monographic exhibition of de Kooning’s work, following its 2015 sculpture show in New York. It is the first opportunity to view a body of de Kooning’s late work in the U.K. since his solo exhibition at Tate in 1995. The show is on view through December 16, 2017 and will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue.

[Go to Skarstedt’s exhibition page.]
 

"Woman-Ochre" Resurfaces After More Than 30 Years University of Arizona Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ
August 2017

The University of Arizona Museum of Art has recovered Willem de Kooning’s Woman-Ochre.  The 1954-55 oil painting was stolen the day after Thanksgiving in 1985 when investigators believe a man and woman worked together to distract a guard while the canvas was cut out of the frame.  The work was returned to the museum by David Van Auker, who had recently acquired the painting in an estate sale. Van Auker realized its significance after customers to his antique store began asking if it was a work by Willem de Kooning.

[Go to UAMA website.]

"Dedicated to de Kooning" Long Island Children's Museum, Garden City, NY
June 15 - July 3, 2017

This summer, the Long Island Children’s Museum is hosting an exhibition of artwork created by students at this year’s Dedicated to de Kooning workshops. In collaboration with The Willem de Kooning Foundation, workshop sessions took place at the museum, Cohen Children’s Medical Center, and Nassau County libraries and high schools.

Go to Long Island Children's Museum exhibition page. 

“You Belong Here: Reimagining the Blanton,” Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX
Opens February 12, 2017

The Willem de Kooning Foundation is pleased to announce the long-term loan of a 1985 painting from its collection to the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas, Austin.  The painting is exhibited alongside works from the museum’s permanent collection in their re-installation.  The galleries opened February 12, 2017, with a community celebration to follow on March 25, 2017.

Go to Blanton Museum of Art Exhibition page. 

"Willem de Kooning / Zao Wou-Ki" An exhibition at Lévy Gorvy Gallery, New York
January 19 – March 11, 2017

For its inaugural exhibition Lévy Gorvy Gallery has organized a selection of over twenty paintings from the late 1940s through the early 1980s by Willem de Kooning and Chinese artist Zao Wou-ki.  This is the first time works by these artists have been presented together.  Following its display in New York, the exhibition will travel to Hong Kong.

Go to Lévy Gorvy Gallery exhibition page.

“Willem de Kooning: Drawn and Painted,” An exhibition and seminar at Princeton University Art Museum (PUAM), Princeton University
November 19, 2016 – March 19, 2017

The Willem de Kooning Foundation has been pleased to collaborate with Princeton University on this fall’s seminar Art 494, Professor John Elderfield’s advanced undergraduate course focused on de Kooning and the close examination of artworks.  This exhibition comprised of eight paintings on loan from the Foundation has been curated by Dr. Elderfield’s six students from a larger selection of paintings and drawings from the late 1960s to the 1970s.  The Foundation utilizes its collection for scholarly and educational purposes, in this case providing the opportunity to study works in which de Kooning’s processes and experimentation remain clearly exposed.  As the Foundation hopes to inspire new discoveries and dialogues in the visual arts, this particular program is rich with possibility. Research on the exhibited works is ongoing.

A colloquium organized in conjunction with the exhibition will be held at Princeton on December 9^th at 2:00 p.m. in McCosh Hall.  Students from the course will present new research on the paintings, and speakers will include Cecily Brown, artist; James L. Coddington, Chief Conservator, The Museum of Modern Art; John Elderfield, Chief Curator Emeritus, The Museum of Modern Art; and Peter Schjeldahl, art critic, The New Yorker.  The colloquium will explore the working processes of Willem de Kooning.

A related installation, “de Kooning and the New York School,” is on view in PUAM’s Works on Paper Study Room through December 24^th.  The works in this particular installation are not from the Foundation’s holdings.

Go to Princeton University Art Museum

“Artists and Lovers” An exhibition at Ordovas New York
November 4, 2016 – January 7, 2017

Ordovas Gallery’s “Artists and Lovers” exhibition, which originated in London in September, has travelled to New York, where it will be on view through January 2017. Comprised of celebrated artist pairings, the show features work by Elaine and Willem de Kooning. Elaine’s 1959 painting Untitled (Standing Bull) is joined by Willem’s 1973 bronze figure Hostess.

Go to Ordovas Gallery’s exhibition page

“Chamberlain / de Kooning” An exhibition at Mnuchin Gallery
November 2, 2016 – December 22, 2016

Mnuchin Gallery has organized an exhibition of John Chamberlain’s steel sculptures from the 1950s to the 1980s, and Willem de Kooning’s oil paintings from the 1970s and 1980s. It is the first exhibition to focus exclusively on these two bodies of work. The show brings together 7 paintings from private collections, including Screams of Children Come from Seagulls (1975).

Go to Mnuchin Gallery’s exhibition page 

"Abstract Expressionism" An exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, London
September 24, 2016 - January 2, 2017

More than fifteen works by Willem de Kooning will be included in the upcoming exhibition Abstract Expressionism, curated by David Anfam, with Edith Devaney.  This exhibition is organized by the Royal Academy of Arts, London in collaboration with the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.  It is scheduled to be on view at the Royal Academy from September 24, 2016 – January 2, 2017 and at the Guggenheim Bilbao from February 2, 2017 – June 3, 2017.

Go to Royal Academy of Arts

"Dedicated to de Kooning" An exhibition at the Long Island Children's Museum
May 28, 2016 - June 26, 2016

An exhibiton of abstract artwork created by children and teenagers at this year's de Kooning workshops and Nassau County library outreach sessions sponsored by The Willem de Kooning Foundation and organized by Long Island Children's Museum. 
 

Go to LICM

"Willem de Kooning From the John and Kimiko Powers Collection" An exhibtion at Bridgestone Museum of Art, Ishibashi Foundation, Tokyo, Japan
October 8, 2014 - January 12, 2015

The exhibition is largely comprised of works formerly in the collection of John and Kimiko Powers, on loan from the Ryobi Foundation and The Museum of Modern Art, New York.  Additional works by Willem de Kooning are on loan from other Japanese museums for a total of 35 paintings, drawings and sculpture.  The exhibition marks the first time works from the John and Kimiko Powers collection have been exhibited as a group in Japan.

Go to Bridgestone Museum of Art

Robert Motherwell Panel Discussion Held at Guild Hall of East Hampton
Saturday, August 9, 2014 from 3-4pm. Free with museum admission.

The Willem de Kooning Foundation is pleased to sponsor the Robert Motherwell Panel Discussion held on the occasion of “Robert Motherwell: The East Hampton Years, 1944-1952,” curated by Phyllis Tuchman and on view at Guild Hall Museum from August 9, 2014 to October 13, 2014.  The panel of speakers will include Jack Flam, President and CEO of the Dedalus Foundation, Catherine Craft, Associate Curator of the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, Texas, and artist Clifford Ross, and will be moderated by Phyllis Tuchman. The panel will focus on the “unknown” Motherwell from each panelist’s perspective. It will include a discussion of his relationships with East Enders Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock, who stayed at Motherwell’s studio before either had permanent residences in the area. De Kooning worked in Motherwell’s studio in the summer of 1953.

The exhibition brings together two dozen works from Motherwell’s early career and explores the contributions he made to the Abstract Expressionist movement in the context of the East End artist’s community.  For more on the exhibition, including a video recording of the panel discussion, please visit guildhall.org.

"Dedicated to de Kooning," An exhibition at the Long Island Children's Museum
May 15, 2014 - June 15, 2014

An exhibiton of abstract artwork created by children and teenagers at this year's de Kooning workshops and Nassau County library outreach sessions sponsored by The Willem de Kooning Foundation and organized by Long Island Children's Museum.
 

Go to LICM

'A Way of Living,' by Judith Zilczer
April 25, 2014

Review of A Way of Living: The Art of Willem de Kooning by Judith Zilczer (Phaidon, 2014)

by Jackie Wullschlager

Financial Times, London

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De Kooning Show Dazzles 
November 28, 2013

by Jennifer Landes

The East Hampton Star

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Sculpture by Renowned Artist Willem de Kooning Arrives at Johns Hopkins Campus: 'Reclining Figure' on 5-Year Loan from The Willem de Kooning Foundation
October 1, 2013

by Brian Shields

HUB, Art + Culture section, Johns Hopkins University

Go to article