Willem de Kooning had a restless, probing creativity, pushing on from one style to the next. The battle between abstraction and figuration was essential to his art as he moved from the profound black-and-white abstractions of the 1940s to the ferocious Women of the 1950s, through the later "landscapes" and the final lyrical abstractions. This richly illustrated volume offers a perceptive and sympathetic view of an artist who made some of the greatest art of this century. The variety, the inventiveness, the sheer quality of de Kooning's work demand our attention and reward us with visual riches. Book jacket.