De Kooning: A Retrospective
This volume magnifies and clarifies the great exhibition's many facets, honoring the complexity of de Kooning's historical presence and his work's lasting fascination. Short essays examine various aspects of nine distinct phases of his career; to each phase is appended a detailed chronology and an analysis of materials and methods used in a single representative canvas. In his idiosyncratic syntax, de Kooning once described himself as a "slipping glimpser," referring to his preference for the incomplete or provisional information that a dynamic viewpoint affords, and this teeming book aptly provides slipping glimpses of one of the giants of 20th-century painting. (Maine StephenArt in America2011-12-28)"De Kooning: A Retrospective" is a superlative exhibition. (Its catalogue is equally fantastic.) (Tyler GreenModern Art Notes/ARTINFO2011-09-28)Bring open eyes and an open mind, for if you cherish the ox of any aesthetic of ideological bias, de Kooning will gore it. (Peter SchjeldahlThe New Yorker2011-09-26)The Museum of Modern Art's generous, even prodigal De Kooning retrospective is the most ambitious show New York has seen in a long time - a lavish, knotty and definitive tribute to a tricky and alloyed genius. (Ariella BudickFinancial Times2011-09-25)" the first comprehensive look at de Kooning's work in nearly 30 years " (Carol VogelThe New York Times2011-09-21)"De Kooning: A Retrospective," at the Museum of Modern Art, is the most piercing, inexhaustible, and relentlessly intense full-on career survey I have ever seen in this country. (Jerry SaltzNew York Magazine2011-09-16)If you are looking for something jaw-dropping, then look no further than this sprawling retrospective devoted to one of the most important figures in 20th century American painting. (Carolina MirandaWNYC Culture2011-09-15)Predictably awe-inspiring  In its scale, crème-de-la-crème editing and processional sweep, it's MoMA in excelsis, and for many people it will probably represent this institution's history-writing at its best. (Holland CotterThe New York Times2011-09-15)The first retrospective since de Kooning's death in 1997, it will give us our first opportunity to experience the artist from start to almost-finish. (Kelly Devine ThomasARTnews2011-09-01)