A cute, breezy arrangement, presumably of a girlfriend
.
I've always appreciated the flamboyant energy in DeKooning drawings whenever they appear in Expo Chicago, but the total immersion offered by this exhibit is a much different experience.
Once locked into the DeKooning vibe, everything looks better-- including "Excavation", his famous painting from 1950 that's included in this show. Hanging in the Modern Wing, it's usually felt heavy, desperate, and depressing to me. It's a lot more fun to see it as a compilation of the drawings that surround it
And it's even more fun to see all those large drawings he did - with their thrilling combination of loose, goofy figuration and the tight compositional twists, turns, compressions, and eruptions.
1970-77
Much of this is "bad boy" art: obnoxious women, and a few crucified men, looking quite silly. But the subject usually retreats behind the exuberant and apparently effortless handling of pictorial space.
C. 1924
Really like these cartoons done when he was about 20. His space is so fluid.
The Netherlands, 1944
He became proficient in design.
This piece won a contest by the Container Corporation of America,
- a significant patron of modern design for many decades
Portrait of Elaine, 1941-42
Not really a strong piece, and many of his more realistic figurative paintings from that period are the same way. In some narratives of the history of abstract expression, the foundational artists felt their figurative work did not express what they wanted.
1959
These Franz Kline like pieces were the highlight of this show for me. He made several in the months he spent in Rome, and then he never made them again.
Here's the others:
They're funkier than Kline,
more organic - like a crushed bug on the windshield.
Though eye catching, they do leave a bitter aftertaste.
A bit like a hangover.
DeKooning has a place in the canon of American art history. He’s better than many of his colleagues at marking the postwar turn from social idealism to personal gratification (or crisis). It made a strong case for the ‘free West” versus the dreary soviets. It has long since been pushed aside by the intellectual gratification of conceptual art and the righteous gratification of identity art. So what's it good for now?
It's fun.
Wanton, sometimes naughty, scribbles by someone expert in graphic design
1947-48
1985
A balance that feels as momentary as a soap bubble.
One second later, it will be gone.
Here’s a more exciting variation, presumably from the same period.
(found online, not in this show)
1975
A rich, enjoyable, but meaningless life
1969-1975
Somehow these small bronzes, with hints of figuration, are more disruptive than the drawings.
They belong in a Park Avenue penthouse
to proclaim the kind of freedom enabled by wealth.
Regrettably, this is about as close to explicit erotic drawing as he got.
He must have been uncomfortable with it.
"Beauty becomes petulant to me. I like the grotesque. It's more joyous."
(A quote from the signage)
I would disagree, but our childhoods were different.
Nasty and brutish.
But sometimes life is like that.
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This show was taken as a major event in the American artworld, so many publications offered reviews
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He called himself a “slipping glimpser” and, indeed, to take in one of Willem de Kooning’s paintings is always a series of momentary glances—nothing waits long enough to be apprehended....Dmitry Samarov in the Chicago Reader
Good description - though not sure why this is a good thing. Unlike live music, visual art provides the opportunity for timeless contemplation - why not take advantage of that? Though I agree that this is the Art Institute's best show of 2026 (it's been a weak year)
===============At “Willem de Kooning Drawing,” the first major exhibition of the Abstract Expressionist pioneer’s drawings, fear, anger, pain, and play are on full display... Hilton Als, New Yorker
I agree - but why look at it? Is this something where improvement matters? Is it a goal worth pursuing? Could we call it an important achievement? Aren’t those questions that art critics in leading national publications should be asking?
