Hear from curator Alexandra Foradas on the artist Willem de Kooning and the Museum’s exhibition

Willem de Kooning: The Breakthrough Years, 1945–50 examines the artist’s work during a period of bold experimentation with figuration and abstraction, establishing him as a key figure in the American avant-garde. Visit the exhibition, then join Alexandra Foradas, the Museum’s Haskell Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, for a discussion on exhibition highlights, guest curators’ research and insights into de Kooning’s artistic process, and the vibrant creative communities of the postwar New York art world. Introduced by Chief Curator Juliana Ochs Dweck.

Speakers

Alexandra Foradas, Haskell Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Princeton University Art Museum

[Image caption: Willem de Kooning (1904–1997; born Rotterdam, Netherlands; died East Hampton, NY; active New York, NY), Black Friday, 1948. Enamel and oil over paper collage on fiberboard in painted wood frame; 125 × 99 cm, 128.3 × 102.2 × 7.3 cm (frame). Princeton University Art Museum. Gift of H. Gates Lloyd, Class of 1923, and Mrs. Lloyd in honor of the Class of 1923 (y1976-44). © 2026 The Willem de Kooning Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York]

Sponsored by the Princeton University Art Museum