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Easter Monday

Willem de Kooning American, born The Netherlands
1955–56
Not on view
A tour de force of de Kooning’s gestural style, Easter Monday bristles with energy. Angled forms and lines collide, overlap, and penetrate one another, while transferred newsprint, particularly visible at the bottom and top right, enforces a tenuous grid-like structure. The work appears to be in simultaneous processes of creation and destruction, a perpetual state of both realization and erasure that finds some analogy in the continuous growth and decay of nature. Named for the day on which de Kooning completed it in 1956, the painting is the largest of ten monumental works he exhibited that spring. Critic Thomas Hess likened the group to "abstract urban landscapes," and Easter Monday does seem to reference the whirling pace and gritty detritus of the modern city.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Easter Monday
  • Artist: Willem de Kooning (American (born The Netherlands), Rotterdam 1904–1997 East Hampton, New York)
  • Date: 1955–56
  • Medium: Oil and newspaper transfer on canvas
  • Dimensions: 96 3/4 in. × 74 1/4 in. × 1 in. (245.7 × 188.6 × 2.5 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1956
  • Object Number: 56.205.2
  • Rights and Reproduction: © 2025 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
  • Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

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