Willem de Kooning

Willem de Kooning was a Dutch-American painter and sculptor who lived from 1904 to 1997, born in Rotterdam and moving to the United States as a stowaway in 1926 before becoming a citizen in 1962. A central figure of abstract expressionism and action painting within the New York School alongside Jackson Pollock, he is best known for paintings such as Woman I, Woman III and Woman VI and for sculptures including Seated Woman on a Bench. A 2011-2012 retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art confirmed him as one of the best-known artists of the twentieth century, and his painting Interchange later sold for roughly 300 million dollars.