“de Kooning’s paintings of the Seventies are an annihilation of distance. The close-ups are about closeness, a consuming closeness. These paintings are crystallizations of the experience and amazement of having body and mind dissolve into another who is all delight.”
Exceeding the confines of the canvas through its spectacular assault of unrestrained expression and brilliant color, Untitled XXXIII from 1977 encapsulates the full force of Willem de Kooning’s singular abstract vernacular. Executed at a critical moment in his career, when the artist had abandoned Manhattan for the natural landscape of Springs, Long Island, de Kooning here reaches his formal climax in the present work's rich color palette and staggering variation of expressionist brushwork. Demonstrative of the artist's renewed focus on painting during these pivotal years, Untitled XXXIII belongs to an explosive outpouring of creativity that produced an illustrious body of color-drenched canvases that rank among the most iconic achievements of de Kooning’s decades-long career. Famous for his relentless working and reworking of his canvases in the 1950s, de Kooning demonstrates a confidence and urgency within the composition of Untitled XXXIII that is as affecting today as it was when it was painted. Similarly scaled abstract masterpieces from this pivotal three-year period belong to the most esteemed private collectors and significant museums worldwide, including the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Menil Collection in Houston, amongst prestigious others. For its sheer force of painterly conviction, tactile physicality, incandescent lyricism, and jewel-like coloration, Untitled XXXIII ranks among the most irresistible paintings of de Kooning’s output.
“I wanted to get in touch with nature. Not painting scenes from nature, but to get a feeling of that light that was very appealing to me, here particularly… I got into painting in the atmosphere I wanted to be in.”
Among the greatest heroes of Abstract Expressionism in New York, de Kooning spent the early part of his career in Manhattan, keeping company with peers Jackson Pollock, Adolph Gottlieb, Barnett Newman, and Arshile Gorky. Like Pollock and Gorky, de Kooning became exhausted by the onslaught of noise and tension inherent to life in the city and began spending his summers in East Hampton as early as 1959, escaping the urban commotion in favor of the rural quietude. By 1963, he had moved entirely out of New York, immersing himself instead in the light-filled and soothing environment of Long Island. Although Untitled XXXIII remains resolutely abstract, it nevertheless evokes the essence, memories, and experience of de Kooning’s oceanic and peaceful surroundings. The glimmer of sunlight on the ocean, a rush of waves crashing onto the sand, the bright bloom of beachside rosebuds—all encapsulated by the present work—captivated and seduced de Kooning, reminding him of his home in Holland. Enveloping the viewer in a riot of brilliant hues, the undulating collisions of line and form within Untitled XXXIII reproduce the unmistakable aura of chaos and tranquility inherent to the natural world.
Large swaths of gleaming white pigment dominate the left side of Untitled XXXIII, creating a voluminous structure around which de Kooning’s fury of crimson pigment dips, weaves, and darts across the canvas. Whiplashes of olive green and royal blue crash together in crags and blurs of vigorous spontaneity, while subtle splashes of canary yellow call to mind a sun-drenched Edenic beach, against which darker thrusts collide with swaggering force. Wider pulls of paint and thick impasto create a maelstrom of distinct brushstrokes alongside swiped passages of diaphanous color. This juxtaposition of clear details against hazier patches forces the viewer to reconsider how one ‘reads’ an abstract painting, demanding a continuous optical readjustment and refocus to integrate the sharp edges of flecked paint against sublime opacity. Harry F. Gaugh writes, “In a sense, the world outside the paintings with its bounty of forms is irrelevant—not expendable, to be sure, but a realm of natural phenomena apart from yet corresponding to the paintings themselves. De Kooning’s late [1970s] works, like those from earlier periods, are not abstractions from nature, nor variations on it. At best they are responses to it, not consciously dictated but intuitively articulated. And more than before, the late paintings are a return to nature, not only in theme but through the searching act of painting, whereby de Kooning repeatedly questions his own relationship to nature as well as testing again and again his inventive powers.” (Harry F. Gaugh, Willem de Kooning, New York 1983, p. 104) Bespeaking a deep engagement with the natural world, Untitled XXXIII invokes the raucous, untamed beauty of blinding sunlight dancing upon the Atlantic Ocean, the jubilant yellow churns swelling into the aquatic forms like so many cresting waves.
Right: Willem de Kooning, Interchange, 1955, Private Collection. Art © 2021 The Willem de Kooning Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Digital Image
Harry F. Gaugh writes, “In a sense, the world outside the paintings with its bounty of forms is irrelevant – not expendable, to be sure, but a realm of natural phenomena apart from yet corresponding to the paintings themselves. De Kooning’s late [1970s] works, like those from earlier periods, are not abstractions from nature, nor variations on it. At best they are responses to it, not consciously dictated but intuitively articulated. And more than before, the late paintings are a return to nature, not only in theme but through the searching act of painting, whereby de Kooning repeatedly questions his own relationship to nature as well as testing again and again his inventive powers.” (Harry F. Gaugh, Willem de Kooning, New York, 1983, p. 104)
PAINTINGS FROM 1975 - 1977 IN IMPORTANT MUSEUM COLLECTIONS
Bespeaking a deep engagement with the natural world, Untitled XXXIII invokes the raucous, untamed beauty of blinding sunlight dancing upon the Atlantic Ocean, the jubilant yellow churns swelling into the aquatic forms like so many cresting waves. In every decade of his long and illustrious career, de Kooning kept a firm grip on his medium as muse, and the unbridled majesty and glory of paint exhibited in Untitled XXXIII are no exception. De Kooning’s revitalization in painting in the late 1970s also announced a departure from his iconic Woman paintings; briefly abandoning the figure, de Kooning instead turned to nature and focused on his Long Island environs. De Kooning’s sense of line is of course critical to his entire aesthetic identity, and even during the period when he focused primarily on sculptures, from 1969 to 1975, he continued to draw prolifically. But with his renewed focus on the plastic form of paint, de Kooning’s line is subsumed, as his strokes broaden and flatten. In place of line, both color and light serve as the organizing principles of his abstraction, reflecting the artist's bright and open environment. Describing the profound inspiration and visceral pleasure he found in the luminous landscape of his East Hampton surroundings, de Kooning reflects: “I wanted to get in touch with nature. Not painting scenes from nature, but to get a feeling of that light that was very appealing to me, here particularly… I got into painting in the atmosphere I wanted to be in.” (The artist quoted in Harold Rosenberg, “Interview with Willem de Kooning,” ARTnews 71, September 1972, p. 57) Rendered with the full force of de Kooning’s inimitable painterly lexicon and sure compositional command, Untitled XXXIII represents nothing less than the inescapable and incontrovertible apex of the artist’s mature output.
