Woman III

Willem de Kooning painted this Woman III in 1953 as part of his six-painting Woman series, which debuted at New York's Sidney Janis Gallery that same year. The 68 by 48-inch canvas presents an abstracted female figure with exaggerated eyes, sharp teeth, and claw-like hands, rendered through aggressive gestural brushwork in a restrained palette of muted grays and whites.

The Woman series sparked immediate controversy. Critics like Clement Greenberg saw de Kooning's return to figuration as a betrayal of Abstract Expressionism's pure abstraction. Feminist voices objected to what they interpreted as violent imagery directed at women. De Kooning dismissed both critiques, maintaining he had always worked both figuratively and abstractly.

Woman III is the only painting from the early series remaining in private hands. MoMA acquired Woman I; the others entered museum collections. The Tehran Museum of Art once owned Woman III before David Geffen acquired it. In 2006, dealer Larry Gagosian brokered its sale to Steven A. Cohen for $137.5 million, making it one of the most expensive paintings ever sold.