Caleb de Jong reviews the exhibition Willem de Kooning: The Figure: Movement and Gesture at Pace Gallery (57th St) through July 29, 2011.

In the works on view at Pace de Jong notes that "De Kooning is taking Ingres' classical line and supercharging it with Ruben’s chromatic and emotional performance. The painterliness was not new, but the Rubensian openness – away from the claustrophobic space of Attic and Excavation – was new and to some disappointing… As the paintings in this exhibition testify, far from disappointing or representing a falling away of his powers, de Kooning worked through a new path, mined a new vein that resonates today in its rich possibilities for contemporary painting."