This fully illustrated exhibition catalog explores paintings dating from 1944 through 1986, alongside two sculptures. Bringing together late works such as Untitled V (1982) and Untitled XIX (1984) with earlier decades of production, the exhibition reexamines the recurring visual language that shaped de Kooning’s career.
A central focus of the catalog is the artist’s restless process: his habit of reworking canvases, tracing preserved forms onto vellum, shifting orientations, and continuously revising compositions rather than declaring them “finished.” The title Endless Painting reflects this evolving methodology: painting as an open system rather than a closed statement.
Essays by Cecilia Alemani and John Elderfield provide scholarly context, positioning de Kooning’s late works within his broader exploration of figuration and abstraction. Particular attention is given to the expansive vocabulary of human forms, elbows, knees, mouths, eyes, that echo across decades of his practice.
Designed as a research-level exhibition catalog, this volume offers critical insight into one of the most influential figures of postwar American art and serves as an essential reference for collectors, scholars, and serious readers of Abstract Expressionism.
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