Willem de Kooning - Rotterdam New York

A hundred years ago, 22-year-old Willem de Kooning left the quays of his hometown, Rotterdam. Hidden away on board of the cargo ship SS Shelley, De Kooning travelled to New York. He left a city in its heyday: in the Roaring Twenties, Rotterdam was transforming into a vibrant, world-class cultural port city. This publication showcases this vibrant Rotterdam, the city where De Kooning grew up and was shaped by his time at the academy and at the design firm Giddings & Zonen. At the same time, the book sketches a vivid picture of 1920s New York, where he, like many others, arrived as a migrant and began a new life. It was here that Willem de Kooning emerged as one of the greatest and most influential artists of the twentieth century.