Willem de Kooning

Matthew Marks Gallery, New York
Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York
Thomas Ammann Fine Art, Zurich
Acquired by the present owner from the above

New York, Mitchell-Innes & Nash, Willem de Kooning: Drawings and Sculpture, October - December 1998, pl. 33, n.p., illustrated in color
Basel, Thomas Ammann Fine Art, Willem de Kooning: Art Basel Exhibition, June 2003, no. 8, illustrated in color

This work is in very good condition overall. The edges of the sheet are yellowed. There is a ¼ inch round area near the upper left corner where this surface of the paper is lightly skinned. 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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By 1970, Willem de Kooning was firmly established as one of the pre-eminent artists of the 20^th century, and one who continued to improve and expand upon his prior achievements.  Having initially made his mark as a pioneering Abstract Expressionist, de Kooning rocked the establishment with his show at the Sidney Janis Gallery in 1953 of his Woman paintings and his embrace of the decidedly and brazenly sexualized figurative form.  De Kooning continued to expand on his use of figurative elements within an otherwise immaterial arrangement in the outline of a squatting female form is clearly discernible within this seemingly abstract composition. 

A lifelong lover of jazz, de Kooning mimicked the improvisational nature of the medium in his own work, gesticulating and manipulating the paint as a soloist does a harmony, and, interestingly, he has depicted here what seems to be a flutist keenly intent on whistling the perfect tune.  The outlined head of the figure seems to nod in approval as the hands slide nimbly along the body of the instrument and one foot is blurred by the motion of its tapping out the rhythm. 

It is a rhythm which ebbs and flows with the painter's song, and as such, he has included a touching piece of biography repurposed as planar abstraction.  The Dutch flag, de Kooning's country of birth, waves breezily beside the figure.  The artist has, in more ways than one, taken his love for painting, music and art in its most elemental form and wed them, one to the other, just as the rich Dutch heritage of visual art would continue to affect and influence his particularly American achievements.