INTERCHANGE:

Interchange, also known as Interchanged, is oil on canvas painting by the Dutch-American abstract expressionist painter Willem De Kooing (1904-1997). It measures 200.7 by 175.3 centimeters (79.0 by 69.0 in) and was completed in 1955.

It marked the transition of the subjects of de Kooning's paintings from women to abstract urban landscapes. It reflects a transition in de Kooning's painting technique due the influence of artist Franz Kline, who inspired de Kooning to paint with quickly made gestural marks as opposed to violent brush strokes. The painting features a fleshy pink mass at its center, representing a seated woman.

In September 2015, it was sold by the David Geffen Foundation to Kenneth C Griffin for $300 million ($317.1 million today), a new mark for highest ever painting after Salvator Mundi. The following are the famous works of Willem other than Interchange.

INTERCHANGE

BACKGROUND:

Interchange was completed in 1955. de Kooning had concentrated much of the early part of the 1950s reworking abstract figure study works of the female figure which he started in 1948. These were associated with his solo exhibition in 1953 which was called Paintings on the Theme of the Woman which opened in New York City that year.

Some of the titles for these works were associated with various states of Woman I, Woman III and Woman, as well as Two Standing Women. By 1955, de Kooning had moved away from painting the human form and continued with the abstract rendering of the architecture and communities of his surroundings in New York City. Some of de Kooning's 1955 oil paintings prominent at that time were Police Gazette, Composition, Gotham News, Saturday Night, and Easter Monday.