John Elderfield

Published in conjunction with the large-scale, all-medium, posthumous retrospective of Willem de Kooning's career at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), this book offers an unparalleled opportunity to appreciate the development of the artist's work as it unfolds over nearly seven decades. Representing nearly every type of work de Kooning made, in both technique and subject matter, this retrospective includes paintings, sculptures, drawings and prints. Among these are the artists most famous, landmark paintings among them "Pink Angels", "Excavation" and the celebrated third "Woman" series plus in-depth presentations of all his most important series, ranging from his figurative paintings of the early 1940s to the black-and-white compositions of 194849, and from the urban abstractions of the mid 1950s to the artists return to figuration in the 1960s and the large gestural abstractions of the following decade. Also included is de Kooning's famous yet largely unseen theatrical backdrop, the 17-foot-square "Labyrinth" (1946). With lavish, full colour documentation, this volume is the most complete account of de Kooning's career ever published.