Rarely Seen Works by Willem de Kooning Go on View at Art Institute of Chicago

Dutch-American artist Willem de Kooning has been setting auction records with his paintings in recent decades, but it is his drawings that are the focus of an exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago. Visitors to “Willem de Kooning Drawing” will find works from charcoal and graphite figurative drawings on woven paper made in the 1920s to minimalistic linear works from the 1980s. Many of the drawings and paintings in the Art Institute’s first solo show on de Kooning since 1969 are being displayed together for the first time. More importantly, it is the first major museum presentation on de Kooning to focus on his drawing practice.

Some of the Abstract Expressionist artist’s most famous works are on view. Woman I is on loan from the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Two Women with Still Life is from the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, and Untitled [Man and Woman] is from a private collection. The Art Institute of Chicago’s very own Excavation is of course here too; that painting won the Venice Biennale prize in 1950 and has been a star of the Chicago collection since 1952. But the paintings are a complement to the drawings here, linking the full creative process together. In addition, the Willem de Kooning Foundation generously loaned many drawings.

“Willem de Kooning continually innovated throughout his career, exploring and expanding ways of seeing and rendering what is seen,” said curator Kevin Salatino, continuing, “He drew incessantly and famously blurred the line between drawing and painting. In the process, he produced a staggering body of work that transformed modern art.” De Kooning continues to provoke and fascinate.

“Willem de Kooning Drawing” is on view at Art Institute of Chicago through September 20, 2026.