The first study of de Kooning's works on paper and clay sculpture from his formative sojourns in Italy The Dutch-American giant of abstraction Willem de Kooning (1904-97) enjoyed two long sojourns in Italy: in the fall of 1959 and in the summer of 1969. These trips profoundly impacted his work--the first generated a significant body of black-and-white works on paper, while the second inspired the artist to experiment with...