Willem de KooningAmerican, 1904–1997Untitled XIII
Can I see it?
Not on view at present
Where is “Untitled XIII” now? Collection: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland. Not on view at present. Checked September 29, 2026.
Cleveland, United States
It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.
- Checked
- In this state since
- Source
- The museum
About the painting
Willem de Kooning, one of the masters of Abstract Expressionism, is best known for his depictions of women created during the 1940s and 1950s. In the early 1960s he continued to paint women, but also began to produce compositions suggesting the landscape and light of his native Holland. In the mid-1970s, the figure became less important to him and by the mid-1980s de Kooning’s paintings had become open, luminous abstractions that integrated both painting and drawing. Untitled XIII features flatly applied, boldly colored interlocking shapes that float in and around swirls of white. The result is a suggestion of broad, expansive space while the shapes and hues hint at a landscape, ocean vista, open sky, or even a curving body part. A remarkable display of energy and inventiveness, this painting was completed by de Kooning at the age of 81.
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Details
- Accession number
- 1987.63
In the catalog
Sources
- The Cleveland Museum of Art
- Image: The Cleveland Museum of Art — © The Willem de Kooning Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
In the life of Willem de Kooning
The whole life1984 · Award
Goslarer Kaiserring
1984 · Award
Max Beckmann prize
1986 · Award
National Medal of Arts
late 1980s
Loses his memory: Alzheimer’s disease
Toward the end of his life, in the late 1980s, De Kooning began to lose his memory and had been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease for some time. The revelation sparked considerable debate among scholars and critics about how responsible he was for the creation of his late work.
