Despite the fact that Willem de Kooning never considered himself as being part of a specific art movement ("It is disastrous to name ourselves"), this Dutch-American artist is seen by the great audience as one of the main figures in American Abstract-Expressionism, which flourished after World War II. Born in the Dutch harbour city of Rotterdam, De Kooning was an apprentice at the Rotterdam Academy of Fine Arts and Techniques for eight years, nowadays known as the Willem de Kooning Academy. In 1926, 22 years of age, he moved to the United States.

In New York, in 1938, he meets his future wife Elaine Marie Fried, who was to become a significant artist as well. De Kooning and thirty-seven other artists were chosen from a general invitation to New York City metropolitan artists to design and paint the 105 public murals at the 1939 New York World’s Fair, which was a great honour. In 1948, De Kooning had first one-man show, which took place at the Charles Egan Gallery in New York. On show were black-and-white enamel compositions. During his career, De Kooning’s subject matter consists mainly of complex figures, male and female series featuring abstractions and biomorphic shapes, often energetically – sometimes even violently - put onto the medium.

When visiting their friends Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) and his wife Lee Krasner (1908-1984), who had a house in East Hampton (New York), Willem de Kooning and his wife fell in love with this area. In 1963 they permanently moved there. According to Elaine, “the land, so near the water, and the quality of the light reminded him of his native Holland”.

Willem de Kooning is an international acclaimed artist. In November 2006, one of his pieces was sold for USD 137.5 million, making it the second most expensive painting ever sold at that time. In September 2011, the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York honoured De Kooning with a large-scale retrospective exhibition, showing nearly 200 works by his hand.