The Willem de Kooning and Italy exhibition will be inaugurated on 16 April 2024 in conjunction with the 60th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale and will remain open until 15 September 2024.

As announced today, 20 September 2023, during the press conference held at the Gallerie dell'Accademia in the presence of the director of the Gallerie Giulio Manieri Elia, the exhibition will be the first to investigate the importance of de Kooning's stays in Italy, dating back to 1959 and 1969. The curators, Gary Garrels and Mario Codognato, will explore, for the first time, the influence of his trips to Italy on the subsequent paintings, drawings and sculptures created by the artist in America.

The exhibition itinerary, designed in collaboration with the UNA/FWR Associati studio directed by the architect Giulia Foscari, will bring together approximately 75 works including paintings, sculptures and drawings, spanning four decades of de Kooning's art, from the 1950s to the 1980s, giving life to the largest exhibition of the artist ever organized in Italy. The first room will include a selection of Black and White Rome, large and extraordinary drawings made by William de Kooning during his first, long visit to the capital, in 1959. The drawings will be exhibited together with works from the late 1950s, created in the period preceding the artist's first visit to Italy: the Parkway Landscape paintings reveal the strength of his work around the mid-twentieth century.