MoMA Plays a Concrete Tribute to Abstract Expressionist Willem de Koonong

New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) has devoted for the first time a complete display of the major artworks of abstract expressionist artist Willem de Koonong, who is regarded as one of the most prolific artists in the 20th century.

Running through Jan. 9, the exhibition will reportedly present a unique opportunity for art connoisseurs to study the mode of work and the gradual evolution of de Koonong as an artist.

Born in 1904, the hallmark of de Koonong's style was an emphasis on complex figure ground ambiguity.

The exhibition, titled de Kooning: A Retrospective, is organized by John Elderfield. It is devoted to the full breadth and depth of de Kooning's career, containing nearly 200 works.

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 artist's most famous, landmark paintings, including Pink Angels (1945), Excavation (1950), and the celebrated third Woman series (1950-53).

The exhibition also includes his figurative paintings of the early 1940s to the breakthrough black-and-white compositions of 1948-49, and from the urban abstractions of the mid 1950s to the artist's return to figuration in the 1960s, and the large gestural abstractions of the following decade.