Willem de Kooning at work

The exhibition is a collaboration with the Art Institute of Chicago and The Willem de Kooning Foundation in New York and can be seen from 9 October 2026 until 17 January 2027. 

Drawing as foundation  

De Kooning drawings are not studies for paintings. For him, drawing was a way of exploring. Through sketching, correcting, repeating, and deliberately surprising himself. This process was fundamental to his art in every medium and is visible on nearly every artwork he completed. 

"I have to change to stay the same" (1981), is what he liked to say. And so his art never stood still. In over 120 pieces, you see how his drawing evolved across more than 65 years, from early drawings as a student to rapid charcoal sketches. 

Alongside these drawings, there are paintings and sculptures that established the artist's reputation, including Excavation (1950) and Pink Angels (c. 1945), and in the Gallery of Honour, close to the Night Watch, are Woman I (1950-1952) and Woman and Bicycle (1952-1953). 

Around the exhibition  

A catalogue edited by the Art Institute of Chicago presents new research on the artist’s drawings, alongside a Dutch-language publication by the Rijksmuseum offering an overview of the artist’s trajectory. You can also draw along in a workshop at the Teekenschool, or take an audiotour.

Willem de Kooning  

Born and raised in Rotterdam, Willem de Kooning (1904–1997) developed a passion for drawing and painting at an early age. In 1926, he stowed away aboard a cargo ship bound for America. He settled in New York, where he worked during his first years as a house painter, illustrator and shop-window designer. The art world beckoned, however, and de Kooning made the transition to becoming an independent artist. 

Following his breakthrough in the late 1940s, he became a key figure in the New York School, alongside contemporaries such as Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner, Barnett Newman and Mark Rothko. In the decades that followed, de Kooning grew into one of the most influential modern artists. Although his work is often associated with Abstract Expressionism, he resisted every attempt to place him within a particular category. 

Credits

Header: Untitled (Three Women) , c. 1948. Collection of the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York, Gift of Mrs. Richard Deutsch (Katherine W. Sanford, class of 1940), © 2026 The Willem de Kooning Foundation, Pictoright, Amsterdam