Willem de Kooning at Bruun Rasmussen's Anniversary Auction in Copenhagen

The artistic giant Willem de Kooning is a guest at Bruun Rasmussen's anniversary auction in Copenhagen with one of his vellum drawings from the early 1970s. The work comes from the famous Allan Stone Gallery in New York.

The Dutch-American artist Willem de Kooning (1904-97) joined the group of Abstract Expressionists in New York in the 1940s and was known to challenge the artistic process and method. For the same reason, he ended up having a tremendous influence on modern art and is considered one of the most important modern artists of the 20th century.

"It is unusual to see a work by Willem de Kooning at an auction in Denmark. He is one of the world's most expensive artists on the auction market, and with this vellum drawing we dive into a truly interesting and lesser-known side of his artistic oeuvre," explains Niels Raben, Head of Bruun Rasmussen's Department of Modern Art.

At the anniversary auction, Bruun Rasmussen presents one of his works, performed with charcoal on vellum, which is a reinterpretation of de Kooning’s painting "The Dancer" from 1972. After the featured work was completed, it has subsequently been exhibited at several museums and galleries in the United States, for example the Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale, the Guild Hall Museum in East Hampton, the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington DC, the Paul Thiebaud Gallery and the Allan Stone Gallery in New York.

De Kooning’s Reverse Sketch Technique

De Kooning used many methods to move his art in new directions. The work presented here is from the beginning of the 1970s, where he was busy reinterpreting the figurative forms of his impulsive, abstract paintings. It is a form of reverse sketch technique, where he has used a piece of vellum as a kind of tracing paper to draw the abstract figures from the painting. On the one side of the work, traced lines of paint can be seen from the original work of art, "The Dancer”. Afterwards, de Kooning turned the work over and redrew the lines that were visible through the vellum. The untitled drawing, therefore, in a way, contains two works – one on each side – and can be seen as a manifestation of the artist's reflection on the original painting.

About the Artist

Willem de Kooning was born in 1904 in the Dutch city of Rotterdam. In 1926, he completed his studies at the city’s Academy of Fine Arts, which today is named after de Kooning. He then emigrated to the United States, where he would eventually become part of the group of Abstract Expressionists. Together with Jackson Pollock, he was one of the most notable representatives of the genre of "Action painting". For a while, de Kooning taught at famous art schools like Black Mountain College and Yale University School of Art. In the 1980s, de Kooning was diagnosed with Alzheimer's, and because of the disease, he decided to conclude his artistic career.

Auction: 4 December at 4 pm at Bredgade 33 in Copenhagen

Preview: 21-26 November at the same address

View all the auction lots with modern art
Read more about the auction