1904-1997

Willem De Kooning was born in the Netherlands and became one of the most prominent painters of the Abstract Expressionist movement and the leader of New York School of action painters.

De Kooning worked commercial painting jobs in the Netherlands and studied painting at the Rotterdam Academy of Fine Arts and Techniques at evening classes. In 1926, he came to the United States as a stowaway on a ship.

De Kooning began to develop his career as a professional artist once he moved to New York. Here, he met and befriended artists John Graham and Arshile Gorky who greatly influenced his artwork. In the 1930s, de Kooning designed public murals for the Works Progress Administration program and began working with abstraction in his paintings.

His developed artwork combined abstract and figurative painting, often using the female figure in his paintings. De Kooning suffered from alcoholism and Altheimer’s and made his last artworks in 1991. His work is included in collections at museums and galleries including: the Egan Gallery, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, The Brooklyn Museum, The Hammer Museum, The Mildred Lan Kemper Art Museum, and many other American and international institutions.