Easter Monday, named for the day on which the painting was completed in 1956, is the largest of ten grandly scaled paintings de Kooning exhibited at Sidney Janis Gallery that spring. In his review of the exhibition in Artnews, critic Thomas Hess likened the works to "abstract urban landscapes;" indeed, in its highly textured surface, swooping lines of paint, and glimpses of newspaper transfers, Easter Monday seems to reference the whirling pace and gritty detritus of the modern city. The transferred newsprint, particularly visible at the bottom and top right, remains aligned with the canvas's edges, enforcing the tenuously grid-like structure of the painting. Shot through with Rubensian flesh-like pinks and vivid blues and yellow, Easter Monday is a tour de force of de Kooning's 1950s style.
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| Easter Monday (1955 – 56) Willem de Kooning Oil and newspaper transfer on canvas | 96 in. x 74 in. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
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