Fire-Damaged Footage of Willem de Kooning

A lot can be said about Willem de Kooning’s 60-year reign as Abstract Expressionist extraordinaire, during which time the artist shifted between painting, drawing, prints, and sculptures—all explored with his characteristic gestural figuration. de Kooning himself was outspoken when discussing his work, but in this fire-damaged video shot in his East Hampton studio, his words are lost on a silent, blistered reel of film—a poetic work of art in its own right.