Willem de Kooning Didn’t Get His Big Break Until His 40s. See the Stunning Abstract Paintings That First Captivated Audiences

Artworks that showcase the painter’s early foray into Abstract Expressionism are now on view at the Princeton University Art Museum

Christian Thorsberg | Daily Correspondent

March 30, 2026

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Willem de Kooning, the Dutch American artist widely celebrated for his contributions to the Abstract Expressionist movement, was still searching for recognition as a 37-year-old painter when the United States entered World War II.

The artist’s paintings shifted between traditional figurative works and experimental abstractions. But by around 1945, he began to merge the two styles. The resulting paintings resonated with audiences. His first solo exhibition in 1948 at Manhattan’s Charles Egan Gallery was lauded, and he was showered with mainstream attention that has rarely faded, even decades later.

“He comes before us in his maturity, with his means under his control, and with enough knowledge of himself and of painting in general to exclude all irrelevancies,” the art critic Clement Greenberg wrote of the exhibition during its opening, per Apollo Magazine.

De Kooning’s breakthrough years—1945 to 1950—are now the subject of a new exhibition at the Princeton University Art Museum. Showcasing 18 signature works painted during this formative period of his life, the exhibition provides an intimate look at an artist hitting his stride.

“By taking a focused look at this pivotal moment in de Kooning’s practice, visitors will discover the artist grappling with material, line and color in ways that shaped the trajectory of his subsequent career and shifted the tide of modern painting,” John Elderfield, co-curator of the exhibition, says in a statement.

A highlight of the show is de Kooning’s Black Friday (1948), which features indistinct glimpses of fleeting monochrome scenes. Traces of a finger, an eye and a slanted roof are all visible in the fluid composition.

Another celebrated work, Gansevoort Street (c. 1949), captures the real-life New York avenue’s medley of meatpacking and butcher businesses in raw, reddish hues. Valentine (1947) experiments with the shape of holiday hearts.

“What happened in the ’40s was absolutely transformative in his career,” Elderfield tells the Guardian’s Veronica Esposito. “He becomes an absolutely mature artist in that five-year period.”

This show is the second solo exhibition dedicated to de Kooning at the museum—the first examined his later works—but the first in its new building, which opened in October. The 146,000-square-foot facility is double the size of the museum’s former structure and features 80,000 square feet of gallery space, two creativity labs where students can make art and several classrooms.

“The exhibitions we’ve chosen to inaugurate our new building celebrate collecting, legacy and the future, and speak to our commitment to reimagine how we curate and present art in this new space,” James Steward, the museum’s director, said in a statement last March. “Of course, Willem de Kooning was an enormously influential artist, but this exhibition, which pivots around his first solo exhibition in 1948, illuminates the artist’s process of inquiry as formative within the long arc of his career.”

“Willem de Kooning: The Breakthrough Years, 1945–50” is on view at the Princeton University Art Museum through July 26, 2026.

Christian Thorsberg | Read More

Christian Thorsberg is an environmental writer and photographer from Chicago. His work, which often centers on freshwater issues, climate change and subsistence, has appeared in Circle of Blue, Sierra magazine, Discover magazine and Alaska Sporting Journal.