The Art Institute of Chicago has opened "Willem de Kooning Drawing," the first solo exhibition of the artist's works at the museum since 1969 and the most comprehensive survey of his drawings ever mounted. Featuring over 180 works spanning his seven-decade career, the show includes drawings created through techniques such as smudging, tracing, blotting, collaging, erasing, and swishing. It is also the first drawings exhibition in 20 years to be held in Regenstein Hall, the museum's main temporary-exhibition gallery. The exhibition includes 11 paintings, a dozen small sculptures, and one print to contextualize his broader oeuvre, and was organized in conjunction with the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.
This exhibition matters because it reasserts de Kooning's status as one of the great draftsmen of the 20th century at a time when digital image-making and AI-generated art dominate visual culture. Curator Kevin Salatino explicitly contrasts de Kooning's ability to command attention with what he calls "AI slop," framing the show as a vital antidote to the attention economy. For the Art Institute, which owns 11 de Kooning works including the masterwork "Excavation" (1950), the exhibition deepens its commitment to mid-century American art while offering both specialists and general audiences a rare, intimate look at the artist's creative process.