The Willem de Kooning Foundation will sell 10 of the Abstract Expressionist artist’s paintings in an effort to raise over $30 million for an endowment that would support the organization’s research and scholarship endeavors. The works, which were created between 1983 and 1985, will be on view at the Gagosian Gallery in New York as part of the exhibition Willem de Kooning: Ten Paintings, 1983-1985 from November 8 to December 21, 2013.
John Elderfield, a consultant for the Gagosian Gallery and the Museum of Modern Art’s chief curator emeritus of painting and sculpture, will organize the exhibition. A portion of the sale’s proceeds will go towards hiring a team of researchers to compile and publish a catalogue raisonné for de Kooning as there is currently no detailed, annotated guide of the artist’s works.
Before showing signs of dementia in the late 1980s, the decade was a highly prolific period for the artist who painted over 300 canvases during this time.
