Willem de Kooning was a pioneering figure among Abstract Expressionists, one of the most influential champions of the dynamic new painting that brought New York to the center of the international scene in the 1950s. This book features ten paintings and drawings by de Kooning selected from The Museum of Modern Art's substantial collection of his work. Together they trace the artist's career, illustrating his much-heralded debut exhibition in 1948, his sensational Woman series of the 1950s and 1960s, and the serene works he made late in life. An essay by Carolyn Lanchner, a former curator of painting and sculpture at the Museum, accompanies each work, illuminating its significance and placing it in its historical moment in the development of modern art.