Lithograph on J. B. Green cream wove paper, 1971. 716x1028 mm; 28 1/4x40 1/2 inches (sheet), full margins. Signed, dated and numbered 13/44 in pencil, lower margin. Printed by Fred Genis, Hollander's Workshop, Inc., New York, with the blind stamp lower left. Published by Knoedler, New York, with the blind stamp lower right. A superb, richly-inked impression of this large, scarce lithograph.
This is the first lithograph that de Kooning made with the famed lithographic printer Irwin Hollander, who had trained at Tamarind Lithography Workshop in California and then opened a studio on East 10th Street in New York in 1964.
According to Hollander, "It was not until [de Kooning] returned from his trip to Japan that he responded to do a body of lithographs. Perhaps the seeing and feeling of calligraphy, sumi brush painting and Zen inspired him sufficiently to do prints. Whatever, the results were beautiful . . . We worked for a year together in 1970 and 1971, proofing 38 images, of which 24 were editioned." Graham 5.
