Willem de Kooning

Tamara Safford, New York
Rick Librizzi, New York
Acquired by the present owner from the above in 1979

Minneapolis, Walker Art Center; Ottawa, National Gallery of Canada; Washington, D.C., Phillips Collection; Buffalo, Albright Knox Gallery; Museum of Fine Arts Houston; St. Louis, Washington University Gallery of Art, De Kooning: Drawings/Sculptures, March - June 1975, cat. no. 26, illustrated in color and checklist fig. 43, illustrated

Thomas B. Hess and Kenneth Koch, Willem de Kooning: Drawings, Greenwich, 1972, no. 35, p. 115, illustrated
Budd Hopkins, "The Drawings of Willem de Kooning," Drawing: The International Review Published by the Drawing Society of New York, 1984, p. 123, illustrated

This work is in very good condition overall. There are artist’s pinholes in the top two corners. Adhesive from an old hinge is slightly visible at the upper right corner. The two lightly colored areas along the right edge towards the bottom of the sheet appear to be the result of the artist having pulled away at the top layer of the sheet. The sheet is hinged verso to the matte at the top two corners. Framed under Plexiglas.
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.
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In the late 1940s through early 1950s, Willem de Kooning executed his celebrated series of black and white compositions. The artist was interested in eliminating color from his palette as a means of focusing on line and gesture. He applied glossy and sinuous Sapolin enamel with a long, liner brush used primarily by sign painters. The use of generous amounts of pigment lyrically applied on the paper allowed chance to take hold and forms to emerge without intention. In turn, images emerge that are grounded in representation, such as doorways or window frames. 

The present work is one from this seminal series in the artist's oeuvre. This period was a profoundly important one for Abstract Expressionist gesture painting as evident in the works of de Kooning's contemporaries, including Guston, Kline and Pollock. Diane Waldman postulated, de Kooning's black and white compositions "rival[ed] Pollock's canvases in their powerful formal organization and masterful improvisation" (Diane Waldman, Willem de Kooning, New York, 1988, p. 77).

Black and White Abstraction is an expressive fusion of line and shape, elegantly merging as a result of chance. De Kooning felt that even abstract shapes could simulate recognizable objects within the picture plane. In the upper right quadrant of the composition is a circular form appearing like the sun. In the bottom left corner is a window frame. According to Thomas B. Hess "The window's frame picks up the beat of the painting's quadrangle... The rectangle is cornered inside the painting to become the stabilizing anchor for the curving shapes. It is also the division between the space of indoors and outdoors. It is the window of a house seen from the outside and simultaneously, the window inside the room...Place swells to include all places. It is a concept which de Kooning once nicknamed, 'no-environment.'" (Thomas B. Hess, Willem de Kooning, New York, 1959, pp. 17-18)