More than 120 works by Willem de Kooning go on show at Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum from 9 October, putting the artist alongside Dutch masters including Van Gogh and Rembrandt. Titled “Willem de Kooning at work,” the exhibition runs until 17 January 2027. It’s described as the biggest European exhibition of his work in more than 40 years.
A return to the Netherlands
The exhibition’s framing follows a journey across the Atlantic. About 100 years before the show, de Kooning left for New York on a cargo ship. Now, the Rijksmuseum brings his work back to the Netherlands. The account gives no further details about the voyage, and it doesn’t explain how the works will be arranged in the galleries.
The show brings together more than 120 works, but the reported details don’t name individual pieces or specify which works will share space with those by Van Gogh and Rembrandt. What’s clear is the institutional pairing: De Kooning, an artist associated with New York, appears in a Dutch museum alongside two figures identified with Dutch art.
The exhibition opens on 9 October. It closes on 17 January 2027. Those dates set the public run of the show, while the report gives no ticket prices, attendance expectations or information about who selected the works.
An artist and a movement
De Kooning belonged to a group of New York artists who pioneered Abstract Expressionism in the 1930s and 1940s. He later became an iconic figure in modern art. The title, “Willem de Kooning at work,” places the artist at the centre of the presentation. The report doesn’t describe the curatorial argument or explain how the exhibition traces his development.
The reported facts establish a broad arc: De Kooning’s departure for New York on a cargo ship, his place among artists associated with Abstract Expressionism, and his return to the Netherlands through a major museum exhibition. The show includes more than 120 works and is described as the largest European presentation of his work in more than 40 years.
The Rijksmuseum is the named venue, and the comparison with Van Gogh and Rembrandt gives the exhibition a Dutch art context. The report doesn’t provide details about funding, the sources of the works or any public response. It also offers no account of how the museum will connect De Kooning’s New York years with the Dutch setting beyond his return and the presence of Dutch masters in the show.
For now, the announcement centres on the exhibition’s dates, scale and historical framing. De Kooning left for New York on a cargo ship about 100 years before the show. From 9 October, more than 120 of his works will appear at the Rijksmuseum. The exhibition closes on 17 January 2027.