Central Asia

Creative rationale

Over the remote steppes of Kazakhstan and the Altai Mountains, where continental extremes create harsh atmospheric conditions, the severely low pressure and bone-chilling temperatures generate a compositional violence that demands aggressive gestural marks. The moderate wind cutting through this frozen landscape at 24 degrees creates diagonal slashes across the canvas, while the extreme cold transforms de Kooning's typical flesh tones into icy greys and blacks punctuated by desperate flashes of cadmium yellow. The crushing low pressure compresses all forms against the picture plane, creating a claustrophobic energy where paint seems to fight for breathing room in savage, overlapping strokes.