Willem de Kooning

Satisfaction in collecting art is to share its enjoyment with others. 

Art is an extension of man’s spirit and to view it with a really open mind is a spiritual experience beyond compare.
—John G. Powers

Gagosian is pleased to announce an exhibition of Willem de Kooning drawings and paintings in honor of John G. Powers. John and Kimiko Powers are well known in international art circles for their insightful, highly personal and astonishingly comprehensive collection of contemporary art. For the Powers, collecting was an extension of the friendships they formed with all of the artists in their collection. The thirty-two works by Willem de Kooning in their collection are a brilliant portrayal of this principle. Most of the works were acquired in the mid-1960s, a period when the Powers would often visit de Kooning in his newly finished studio in the Springs on Long Island. Throughout a two to three year period, they formed a close friendship with the artist; many of the works in this collection were acquired directly from the artist’s studio and many bear personal inscriptions from the artist to the couple.

Nearly all of the thirty-two works in this exhibition are highly expressionist portraits of women, de Kooning’s most celebrated subject matter. The exhibition includes a 1951 study for a portrait of Marilyn Monroe which is composed of several sheets of paper; an oil portrait from 1965 of Two Women as well as the study for it, a gift the artist made to the Powers when they bought the painting. Also included is a 1966 painting entitled The Artist in his Studio, a brilliant mass of brushstrokes portraying de Kooning and his women. The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue with an essay by Robert Rosenblum, and an interview with Kimiko Powers.