The Thief Collector goes beyond the 1985 theft of Willem de Kooning’s “Woman-Ochre” to explore the speculative history of the presumed thieves who held onto it for over 30 years.
Willem de Kooning
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$100M Stolen de Kooning Painting Returns to Museum After 37 Years
Willem de Kooning’s “Woman-Ochre” was sliced out of its frame at the University of Arizona Museum of Art in a notoriously brazen theft.
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How Soutine Showed de Kooning a Way Out
It seems to me that Soutine’s complete lack of interest in the cubists’ desire for order was exactly what appealed to de Kooning.
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A Long-Lost de Kooning Is Being Restored, But Will Always Bear the Scars of Its Theft
Willem de Kooning’s “Woman–Ochre” was missing for over 30 years. Now recovered, it shows signs of mishandling and amateur restoration that are difficult to fix.
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The Met’s Wrong Turn on Revisionism
When an exhibition is as puzzling as this one, it’s useful to step aside and reflect.
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An Ambitious Survey of the Titans of Abstract Expressionism
This expansive AbEx show is brash, irreverent, and unconstrained, just like the period it aims to express.
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From Michelangelo to Marden, Seven Fierce Fistfights from Art History
WASHINGTON, DC — In her ongoing series Le ‘NEW’ Monocle, Shana Lutker creates stage sets and performances based on the circumstances and philosophical undertones of fistfights instigated by Surrealists in Paris in the 1920s.
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The Triumph of Revisionism: The Whitney’s American Century
With America Is Hard to See, the exhibition inaugurating its luminous new Renzo Piano building, the Whitney has reclaimed its role among the city’s museums as the engine of the new.
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Afterlives of Mesopotamian Artifacts, from Flapper Fashion to de Kooning
After excavation, ancient artifacts embark on an afterlife of interpretation. From Ancient to Modern explores how the archaeology of Mesopotamia reflected fashions and academia of the 1920s and 30s, and influenced contemporary art.
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Midcentury Expressionist Drama, Novelized
PARIS — I recently met in my studio the writer Jake Lamar, a New York ex-pat living in Paris, and spoke to him about his new novel, Postérité (The original English title is “Posthumous”), that will be published today in French by Rivages.
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Mining the Art World
LONDON — The world of Gardar Eide Einarsson is one of resistance, negation, and opposition. His works are usually based on coded messages and decontextualized signs taken from various subcultures, hard-core punk, and criminality, with references to terrorists and murderers.
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America’s Grand Gestures Reign Supreme Again in Basel
BASEL, Switzerland — Fifty-five years ago, the exhibition The New American Painting arrived at the Kunsthalle Basel. It was the first stop on a yearlong tour that touted the work of seventeen Abstract Expressionists before eight European countries — the first comprehensive exhibition to be sent to Europe showing the advanced tendencies in American painting. All but five of the original artists from the show had work on view at last weekend’s Art Basel, where postwar American painting and sculpture dominated the halls.