The Summer of de Kooning

Two current de Kooning shows—one at Princeton and one in Chicago—feature different eras and aspects of the Dutch-American artist’s mastery. But both make a similarly compelling case for de Kooning as the meticulous leader of abstract expressionism and set the stage for a market shift. And they help explain his market bounce.

Willem de Kooning sitting with charcoal drawings in his studio at 85 Fourth Avenue, New York, 1946. Photo: Harry Bowden/Courtesy of The Art Institute of Chicago

Marion Maneker

July 7, 2026

Join Puck to listen to this article

Earlier this year, I toured the Frederick Weisman collection in Los Angeles’s Holmby Hills, where two very important works by Willem de Kooning are featured in the house’s former living room: Pink Angels, from 1945, and Dark Pond, from 1948. Those two works play pivotal roles in two exhibitions now on view at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Princeton University Art Museum. When I saw the two de Koonings in L.A., I had no inkling that I would be seeing each again months later in a very different context.