In the sixties and seventies, during his years of retreat from urban life, Willem de Kooning's painting took on a new sense of color and ener-getic gesture which was especially marked by the fundamental experience of landscape on long Island. This overview, featuring a con-centrated selection of large-format paintings,illuminates this period of vigorous, pioneering activity of the celebrated master of American post-war modernism.

Willem de Kooning, regarded as the leading exponent of Abstract Expressionism, is celebrated in the United States as one of the most significant figures in twentieth-century painting. Yet the artist, who was born in Rotterdam in 1904 and died in New York in 1997, is still not fully recognized in Europe as the important figure he was. This applies in particular to his work of the sixties and seventies, which he spent on Long Island in retreat from urban life. This part of his oeuvre bears the imprint of a fundamental experience of landscape,and it is here that de Kooning developed a style of figuration which he never really abandoned, characterized by a new sense of color andenergetic gesture.

A concentrated selection of large paintings shows how his works--although recognizable as landscapes--grew abstract under the influ-ence of his intense experience of nature while his brushwork literally liberated itself from all bonds. This book, featuring essays by Bernhard Mendes Burgi, Klaus Kertess, and Ralph Ubl, and an interview with de Kooning conducted by Harold Rosenberg, focuses for the first time on this period of vigorous, pioneering creativity in the art of the master of American post-war modernism.

Vorwort / Foreword

Bernhard Mendes Burgi

Abstrakte Landschaften

Abstract Landscapes

Werke / Works 1960-1962

Klaus Kertess

Gemaldehaut

Painting's Skin

Werke / Works 1966-1972

Ralph Ubl

Von der Malerei zum Bild.

Orientierung bei Willem de Kooning

From the Painting to the Picture:

The Question of Orientation in the Work of Willem de Kooning

Werke / Works 1975-1977

Harold Rosenberg

Interview mit Willem de Kooning (1972)

Interview with Willem de Kooning (1972)

Werke / Works 1978-1980

Roland Wetzel

Zur Biografie Willem de Koonings

Biographical Notes on Willem de Kooning

Ausgewahlte Literatur / Selected Bibliography

Ausgewahlte Einzelausstellungen / Selected Solo Exhibitions