Willem de Kooning on the quay
One hundred years after Willem de Kooning left Rotterdam for New York, three of his sculptures stand on the quay outside Fenix.
The Quay of Departure
On 18 July 2026, exactly one hundred years after leaving his birthplace, Willem de Kooning returns to the Rotterdam waterfront. Not as the 22-year-old dreaming of America, but through three monumental bronze sculptures he created.
From this summer, Seated Woman (1969–1981), Standing Figure (1969–1984) and Reclining Figure (1969–1982) stand on the waterfront of the city where he grew up. Together, they tell a story of migration. Along Rotterdam's waterfront, past and present meet in sculptures, stories and memories that show how departure and return remain inseparably connected.
Willem de Kooning, Seated Woman, 1969-1980, Collection Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam. On loan from Stichting Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. Photo: Titia Hahne
From Hofplein to Fenix
The three bronze sculptures come from Hofplein, where they are temporarily unavailable to the public due to redevelopment works. On the quay where De Kooning boarded the SS Shelley in 1926, they find a temporary home at the museum about migration. In 2027 they will return to the renovated Hofplein.
Inside Fenix, the painting Man in Wainscott (1969) is on display in the permanent collection. De Kooning painted it beneath the open skies of Long Island on the Atlantic coast. In the atrium stands a smaller model of Standing Figure, on loan from the ABN AMRO Foundation.
The painting Man in Wainscott in the exhibition All Directions. Photo: Connor Houtman.
“It’s late. And as I go to bed, I think of Zaagmolenstraat. God bless you. Your son, Willem.”
Letters by de Kooning at Fenix
Rare letters and photographs by Willem de Kooning are now on display in All Directions. He sent them from the United States to his father and family in Rotterdam.
De Kooning strongly disliked writing, so very few of his personal letters have survived. In these letters, we get to know him as a son and brother who stayed in touch with his family across the ocean.
The letters reveal another side of the artist who became internationally renowned in New York. They tell the story of a migrant who built a new life without losing his ties to his family and the city where he grew up.
Correspondence between Willem de Kooning and his family
Publication Willem de Kooning Rotterdam New York
This illustrated publication brings to life the vibrant Rotterdam in which De Kooning grew up and developed as an artist, both at the academy and at the design firm Giddings & Zonen. At the same time, it sketches New York in the 1920s, where, like many others, he arrived as a migrant and began a new life.
There, Willem de Kooning grew into one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century. The publication includes contributions by Anne Kremers (Fenix), Wim Pijbes (Droom en Daad) and Ludo van Halem (Rijksmuseum).
The publication is available in the Fenix Shop from July 18.
A publication by Fenix and nai010 publishers. Design: Irma Boom
A New Appreciation
To mark the centenary of Willem de Kooning’s departure, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam is dedicating an exhibition to the artist this autumn. Organised in collaboration with The Art Institute of Chicago, it is the most comprehensive survey of De Kooning’s work ever presented in the Netherlands.
The exhibition offers a renewed appreciation of his work: not only as that of an American master, but also as that of a Dutch artist whose influence reached far beyond his country of birth. The exhibition is on view from 9 October 2026 to 17 January 2027.
Partners
This project is realised in collaboration with The Willem de Kooning Foundation, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, CBK Rotterdam, the Municipality of Rotterdam, Droom en Daad, nai010 publishers, Irma Boom and the ABN AMRO Foundation.