Lot 214
  • 214

Willem De Kooning

Estimate
100,000 - 150,000 USD
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Description

  • Willem de Kooning
  • Untitled
  • oil on newspaper
  • 22 by 28 3/4 in.
  • 55.9 by 73 cm.
  • Executed circa 1977.

Provenance

Willem de Kooning Estate, New York
Acquired by the present owner from the above

Exhibited

Venice, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Affinities: Works from the Ulla and Heiner Pietzsch Collection, June 2005 - September 2005, p. 175
Vienna, BA-CA Kunstforum, Verrückte Liebe. Von Dalí bis Francis Bacon. Surreale Kunst aus der Sammlung Ulla und Heiner Pietzsch, March 2006 – June 2006, cat. no. 116, p. 213, illustrated in color 
New York, Mitchell-Innes and Nash, Willem de Kooning: Drawings and Sculpture, October 1998-December 1998, pl. 87, illustrated in color, unpaginated
Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Neue Nationalgalerie, Bilderträume. Die Sammlung und Heiner Pietzsch, June 2009-January 2010, p. 259, illustrated in color

Condition

The work is in very good condition overall. This work is in very good condition overall. Discoloration to the newspaper due to the age. The sheet is undulating slightly. There is 1/4 inch half-circle area of loss to the bottom right likely due to the artist's choice of support. Framed under glass.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Catalogue Note

Like his contemporary Franz Kline, de Kooning used newspapers for various reasons pertinent to picture-making.  He frequently placed newsprint over his wet canvases overnight to keep the pigment from drying, or at least to slow it down; on occasions when he removed the sheets the following morning, an offset of the printing would adhere to the pigment, which he either painted over or left exposed to become part of the surface texture.  This led to him performing this act deliberately, so he could introduce traces of popular culture into his compositions, part of a strategy of connecting his art with 'the street', an unexpected and at first predictive allusion to the aims of Pop artists.  The ill-defined relationship between popular American culture and rarified art, was one of the pre-eminent issues in 20th century art; it may have been behind de Kooning's choice of newspaper as a support, as in this case, where the newspaper acts not just as a structural armature underlying the abstract expressionist composition, but as an infiltration of mass culture into the art world.