A hundred years ago, 22-year-old Willem de Kooning left the quays of his hometown, Rotterdam, and travelled to New York. He left a city in its heyday: in the Roaring Twenties, Rotterdam was transforming into a vibrant, world-class cultural port city. 

This illustrated publication showcases this vibrant Rotterdam, the city where De Kooning grew up and was shaped by his time at the academy and at the design firm Giddings & Zonen. At the same time, the book sketches a vivid picture of 1920s New York, where he, like many others, arrived as a migrant and began a new life. It was here that Willem de Kooning emerged as one of the greatest and most influential artists of the twentieth century.

This publication was created in collaboration with Fenix, the art museum on migration in Rotterdam. Featuring essays by Anne Kremers, Wim Pijbes, and Ludo van Halem. Studio Julie Thissen was responsible for the publication’s visual editing, with a particular focus on the archival photographs of 1920s Rotterdam.