Stowaway comes home to hang with the masters

By the Editorial Team · Monday, October 12, 2026

The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam has launched the largest European exhibition in over 40 years of Willem de Kooning’s work, featuring more than 120 pieces, many never before shown outside the U.S. This event highlights de Kooning’s unique blend of abstraction and figuration and introduces Dutch audiences to a major artist who gained fame primarily in American abstract expressionism.

In 1926, at the age of 22, Dutch artist Willem de Kooning clandestinely traveled from Rotterdam to the United States by hiding in the engine room of the British cargo ship SS Shelley. Nearly a century later, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam is hosting the largest European exhibition of his work in over four decades, marking a significant cultural milestone for the abstract expressionist native to the Netherlands.

The exhibition, titled *Willem de Kooning at work*, which opened on Friday, features more than 120 pieces including drawings, paintings, and sculptures—most of which have never before been exhibited outside the United States. De Kooning, who became a naturalized American citizen in 1962 and lived in the U.S. until his death in 1997, is widely recognized in American art circles as a pioneer of abstract expressionism, a post-World War II movement centered in New York that emphasized spontaneous expression, emotional intensity, and the subconscious. His contemporaries included prominent artists like Jackson Pollock, Arshile Gorky, and Lee Krasner.

Marian Cousijn, curator of the exhibition, highlighted De Kooning’s distinctive balance between abstraction and figuration. She noted that the human form frequently appears in his work, even in pieces that seem entirely abstract at first glance. “He never goes really abstract,” Cousijn explained, emphasizing the persistent presence of the human shape throughout his oeuvre.

De Kooning’s artistic process is also a central theme of the exhibition. Trained rigorously from a young age—he entered art school at 13—he was a skilled draughtsman, and the visible signs of his working method remain evident in his drawings and paintings. “You can still see the under drawings; you can still see the hesitation, he’s scraping away things, he’s erasing things, sometimes he’s cutting, and he’s smudging,” Cousijn said. This transparency allows viewers to appreciate not only the final work but also the act of creation itself.

The exhibition positions De Kooning’s work alongside that of Rembrandt in the Rijksmuseum’s Gallery of Honour. Although their styles differ significantly, Cousijn pointed out surprising commonalities: both artists maintained a prolific drawing practice and shared an experimental approach. Additionally, elements such as light and water held meaningful places in De Kooning’s paintings, echoing motifs that were important to Rembrandt.

Despite his international stature, De Kooning was not widely known in the Netherlands during his lifetime, largely gaining greater acclaim in the United States. This exhibition offers Dutch audiences an opportunity to engage with an influential figure often more closely associated with American art history. “For many people, it will really be a discovery,” Cousijn said.

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