© 2026 The Willem de Kooning Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
On view
Black Friday,
1948
What we call “content,” de Kooning said of his paintings, is an “occurrence” seen in “fleeting glimpses.” Here are glimpses of a roof at top left; a finger that loops down into the upper center; eye—or breast—shapes at lower left; a table or a
figure with a round head standing on the bottom edge. And so it goes on. Few definitive recognitions are allowed; many possible ones encouraged. Representation is placed under stress by marks with a life of their own. Made with a mixture of oil paint and fluidly flowing black enamel, they conceal most of the brighter colors—and perhaps more specific images—with which de Kooning began his composition.
John Elderfield, Allen R. Adler, Class of 1967, Distinguished Curator and Lecturer, emeritus
More Context
Campus Voices
<p>This quintessentially American masterpiece, an emblem of the New York avant-garde, was painted by an undocumented alien who jumped off a cargo ship in Virginia and skirted immigration laws. The most discernible among the intransitive shapes of <em>Black Friday</em>—a locution that has only more recently begun to Americanize the world of mass consumption—are walls with roofs: homes. These vertical silhouettes remind us of what America, as a destination, meant when New York was the world’s capital of painting.</p> <p>Alessandro Giammei, Cotsen Fellow and Lecturer, Italian and French<br></p>
Handbook Entry
Willem de Kooning was a member of the New York-based Abstract Expressionists. During and after World War II, the city’s artistic community absorbed European émigrés, such as the abstract painter Piet Mondrian and the Surrealist Max Ernst, as well as new avenues of thought, including existentialism and psychoanalysis. From this heady brew, de Kooning sought to make something of a piece with the turbulent times in which he was painting. Many of the Abstract Expressionists made major breakthroughs in 1947 and 1948, de Kooning included. <em>Black Friday</em> was featured in the artist’s first solo exhibition in New York in April 1948. Comprised, like most of its companions, of tightly interwoven black and white shapes, with accents of color in the center and lower right corner, <em>Black Friday</em> exploits the formal and emotional power of its restricted palette. It also pits abstraction against representation: clustered among otherwise non-objective forms are a building and a finger. The painting’s title conjures up a host of disquieting associations, from the economic crises of 1869 and 1929 to the Passion, more commonly called Good Friday but also known as Black Friday.
More About This Object
Information
1948
- II bienal do Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo : catálogo geral : [Dezembro 1953 - Fevereiro 1954], (São Paulo?: EDIAM, Ed. Americanas de Arte e Arquitetura, 1953). , no. 15
- Philadelphia collects 20th century: Philadelphia Museum of Art, October 3-November 17, 1963, (Philadelphia, PA: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1963), p. 12 (illus.)
- Selected works from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. H. Gates Lloyd: [Exhibition] Institute of Contemporary Art, the University of Pennsylvania, October 18 to November 19, 1967, (Philadelphia, PA: Institute of Contemporary Art, the University of Pennsylvania?, 1967)., no. 17 (illus.)
- Thomas B. Hess, Willem de Kooning, (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1968)., p. 24 (illus.), p. 55 (illus.); p. 25, 50, 51; cat. no. 26.
-
Hedy B. Landman, European and American art from Princeton alumni collections, (Princeton, NJ: Art Museum, Princeton University, 1972).
, no. 88; p. 108 (illus.) - Harold Rosenberg, De Kooning, (New York: Abrams, 1974), Pl. 57
- "Acquisitions of the Art Museum 1976," Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 36, no. 1 (1977): p. 28-40., p. 35
- Grace Hartigan, Detwiller visiting artist: [exhibition] Van Wickle Gallery, Lafayette College, April 18-May 13, 1983, (Easton, PA: Van Wickle Gallery, Lafayette College, 1983)., p. 1 (illus.)
- Paul Cummings, Jorn Merkert, Claire Stoullig, Willem de Kooning: retrospektive: zeichnungen, gemälde, skulpturen, (Munich: Prestel-Verlag; Berlin: Akademie der Kunste, 1984), p. 64, no. 167 (color illus.)
- Allen Rosenbaum and Francis F. Jones, Selections from The Art Museum, Princeton University, (Princeton, NJ: The Art Museum, Princeton University, 1986), p. 28 (illus.)
- Diane Waldman, Willem de Kooning, (New York: Abrams, 1988), p. 60, 70; p. 61 (illus.), no. 42
- Philippe Sollers, De Kooning, vite, (Paris: Éditions de la Différence, 1988), vol. 2, fig. 15.
- "Acquisitions of the Art Museum 1990," Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 50, no. 1 (1991): p. 16-69., p. 40
- Sally Yard, "The Angel and the Demoiselle: Willem de Kooning's Black Friday," Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 50, no. 2 (1991): 2–25., pp. 3–4, figs. 2–3 (illus.)
- Stephen Polcari, Abstract Expressionism and the modern experience, (Cambridge, UK; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991)., p. 279; p. 281, fig. 220.
- Marla Prather, David Sylvester, Richard Shiff, Willem de Kooning: paintings, (Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art; New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1994)., p. 108, fig. 9; p. 95, 96, 103.
- Norman Lewis: black paintings 1946-1977, (New York: Studio Museum in Harlem, 1998), no citation
- Willem De Kooning and David Whitney, Willem de Kooning: a centennial exhibition, (New York: Gagosian Gallery, 2004)., p. 33 (illus.)
- Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan, De Kooning: An American Master (New York: A. A. Knopf, 2004)., 250, 251, 261, 380
- John Wilmerding et al., American Art in the Princeton University Art Museum: volume 1: drawings and watercolors, (Princeton: Princeton University Art Museum; New Haven, CT; London: Yale University Press, 2004), p. 345, checklist no. 946
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Ellen G. Landau, Reading Abstract Expressionism: context and critique, (New Haven, CT, London: Yale University Press, 2005)
, Black and White - Existing Negative - Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007), 56 (illus.)
- Norman L. Kleeblatt, Action/abstraction: Pollock, de Kooning and American art, 1940-76, (NY: Jewish Museum; New Haven: Yale Univesity Press, 2008)., Pl.15, 58, illus.
- John Elderfield, Lauren Mahoney, et. al., De Kooning: A Retrospective, (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2011)
- Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collections (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2013), p. 56
