Daniel Herr discusses Willem de Kooning's Easter Monday at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

At the Metropolitan Museum of Art, painter Daniel Herr chose to discuss Willem de Kooning's Easter Monday, painted between 1955 and 1956. Herr's first experience with this artwork, along with Composition (1955), occurred during his teenage visits to the Guggenheim in New York. He regards de Kooning's creations from 1955 as some of his finest, referencing a 2011 MoMA retrospective that featured multiple works from this era. Herr points out the collage-like quality of Easter Monday, attributed to the visible newsprint, which may have inspired Robert Rauschenberg's Winter Pool. He notes this series marks the evolution of de Kooning's unique style, transcending the influences of Picasso, Miro, and Gorky, with the painting's vertical layout evoking urban scenes. Herr also highlights de Kooning's intellectual acuity and the resurgence of interest in his exhibitions.