Each dating from the culmination of a decade, these paintings from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s independently mark transformative moments for de Kooning. Presented in dialogue, they reveal the artist’s development across three decades of artistic brilliance and inspiration while living and working in East Hampton, from the rolling figurative forms of Montauk II into the sumptuous abstraction of Untitled, which culminates in the refined, calligraphic beauty of The Hat Upstairs.

Willem de Kooning, Montauk II 1969, Oil on paper mounted on canvas Estimate $10-15 million
The artist’s proximity to Montauk, New York was clearly a preoccupation and source of inspiration for him in the present work. One of five known Montauk paintings the artist executed in 1969, the monumental scale and square proportions of Montauk II make it exceptionally rare among de Kooning’s works of this period, and no comparable paintings of the same quality or unparalleled provenance from the late 1960s have ever been offered at auction. Montauk II is among the very best in color and composition from the series, which are exceedingly rare on the market with two other examples residing in important international museum collections: the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut, and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.

In 1963, de Kooning moved from New York City to Springs, East Hampton, near Montauk. As soon as his new studio was habitable in 1964, he began to work in it. As the title emphasizes, Montauk II exemplifies de Kooning’s focus upon and interest in this specific place of sea and land; here, the artist is already addressing his goals for his preoccupations of the 1970s, where the landscape becomes a main inspiration for his abstraction, in combination with the figuration that he explored so viscerally from the mid-1960s. Within the present work, one feels the history of the decade and a window into de Kooning’s main achievements in his important 1970s renaissance.

Willem de Kooning, Untitled Circa 1979, Oil on canvas Estimate $30-40 million
A singular masterwork of de Kooning’s oeuvre, Untitled, circa 1979, is from a remarkable period of work for the artist, marked by a bold and assured stroke. Few of these paintings have ever appeared on the market, and none as exceptionally stunning as Untitled, circa 1979. It is quintessentially de Kooning yet one-of-a-kind. Representing a transformative moment for de Kooning, Untitled represents the magnificent culmination of the artist’s pivotal cycle of 1970s masterworks and epitomizes the richly worked surfaces the highly gestural, colorful canvases of this period, which rank among the artist’s most highly sought after works, while also foreseeing the refined, compositional lyricism of his late masterworks from the 1980s.

As Montauk II evokes a summer’s sand and light, this painting beautifully conjures the sea – which was a few miles from the artist’s beloved Springs, East Hampton studio, where the work was painted – and immediately recalls the late Nymphéas of Claude Monet—it was even affectionately referred to as “the Monet” by the de Kooning family—and in particular the Impressionist master’s depiction of water mirroring the changing atmosphere of the sky. The surface of Untitled is uniquely remarkable for its vibrant blue, green, and yellow Impressionistic coloration, a combination not used elsewhere in this way within de Kooning’s output, underscoring its exceptional quality and transcending the rare moment from when it was painted.

Willem de Kooning, The Hat Upstairs 1987, Oil on canvas Estimate $8-12 million
Unveiled to the public for the first time, after remaining in the de Kooning Family Collection for more than three decades and never before publicly exhibited, The Hat Upstairs from 1987 is a masterwork of the artist’s 1980s canvases.

The Hat Upstairs singularly embodies the vibrancy, lyrical abstraction, and deft painterly intention of de Kooning’s final and celebrated decade. The year of this work, 1987, was an especially productive and successful year for de Kooning, and within this late period, in which de Kooning experimented with his work considerably in each year, The Hat Upstairs stands out as a major work. The saturated pigment forming harmonious lines and forms that counterbalance one another, and speak to de Kooning’s admiration for the late cutouts by Henri Matisse. Like Matisse, de Kooning distilled a lifetime’s creativity into a highly reduced language of color and line in his late works; here, the gestural strokes and heavy impasto of his earlier output are distilled into graceful ribbons and harmonious arabesques of color.

The Hat Upstairs reveals one of de Kooning’s preoccupations during the 1980s: the almost Zen-like balance and tension of positive and negative, of movement and color, and the balance between them that gives the works form and breath. When positioned in relation to his earlier work, The Hat Upstairs reveals a captivating evolution within the artist’s career, expressing the breadth of his achievements in formulating the abstract language of 20th century art, as well as his ceaseless ability to continue refining and innovating his style.