Willem de Kooning at work

Come and discover 'Willem de Kooning at work' at the Rijksmuseum, a new exhibition that takes you behind the scenes of the artist’s creative world.

With around 120 works on display, you’ll get a close-up look at his sketches and drawings, alongside some of his most striking paintings and sculptures.

It’s been exactly a century since de Kooning left his hometown of Rotterdam as a young stowaway bound for America.

Now, he finally returns to the Netherlands in this special collaboration between the Rijksmuseum and the Art Institute of Chicago, organized together with The Willem de Kooning Foundation.

The exhibition follows his incredible journey from the Netherlands to the bustling art scene of New York. You’ll see how he broke all the rules, moving effortlessly between recognizable figures and bold abstract shapes to help create the movement we now know as Abstract Expressionism.

From his early days to his later years in his Long Island studio, his work is full of energy and color. By focusing on his drawings, we get a personal look at a modern master who never stopped experimenting and whose restless, vibrant lines changed art forever.