Willem de Kooning, Woman I, 1950 to 1952, MoMA
Willem de Kooning, Woman I, 1950 to 1952, MoMA
About this tour
For one winter, two of the great outsiders of 20th century art hang a few hundred metres apart on Museumplein. At the Rijksmuseum, Willem de Kooning at Work (9 October 2026 to 17 January 2027) brings home the boy from Rotterdam who stowed away on a freighter in 1926, painted houses in Manhattan and went on to invent, with Pollock, Rothko and Krasner, the first American art movement the world had to take seriously. More than 120 works across 65 years, with drawing at the centre, and Woman I hung in the Gallery of Honour a few steps from the Night Watch. At the Stedelijk, the Yayoi Kusama retrospective (12 September 2026 to 17 January 2027) is the final stop of a European tour and, after her death in August 2026, her farewell, seven decades of dots, nets and mirrored infinities, with a newly created Infinity Mirror Room. Between the two museums, the Storykeeper leads a walk through the neighbourhoods where the city's galleries, brown cafés and small shops live.
The day
Meet the Storykeeper in the hotel lobby and start at the Rijksmuseum as it opens. Begin in the Gallery of Honour, where Woman I and Woman and Bicycle hang among Rembrandt and Vermeer, then move into the exhibition itself. The Storykeeper follows the drawings, the foundation of everything de Kooning did, from the early Rotterdam training to the Long Island years, and tells the story of the Cedar Tavern, of Pollock breaking the ice, and of a Cold War in which abstraction became an argument for freedom.
Willem de Kooning, Excavation, 1950, Art Institute of Chicago
Willem de Kooning, Excavation, 1950, Art Institute of Chicago
Willem de Kooning, Woman, 1983, Museum Ludwig
Willem de Kooning, Woman, 1983, Museum Ludwig
Leave the museum through the Spiegelkwartier, the antiques and gallery quarter on Nieuwe Spiegelstraat where dealers have traded old masters, Asian art and design for a century. Cross the canals into the Negen Straatjes, nine cobbled lanes of independent boutiques, vintage shops and coffee bars, and continue into the Jordaan, where the galleries of Hazenstraat and Elandsgracht sit between brown cafés that have not changed since the 1950s. Lunch at a café in the Jordaan (not included), with time to sit and watch the neighbourhood go by.
Pumpkin sculpture by Yayoi Kusama
Accumulations, Yayoi Kusama
In the afternoon, walk or take a tram back to Museumplein for the Kusama retrospective at the Stedelijk. The Storykeeper follows the five bodies of work that explain her, the Infinity Nets, the Accumulations, Narcissus Garden, the Pumpkins and the Infinity Mirror Rooms, and closes the loop with the Dutch Nul artists who gave her an audience here in the 1960s, in the same decade de Kooning was becoming an American citizen. Two immigrants, two obsessions, one square. Leave the mirror room for last, and alone. Return to the hotel on foot or by tram.
Willem de Kooning, Woman (Woman Seated I), 1952
Willem de Kooning, Woman (Woman Seated I), 1952
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Inclusions
Tour Disclaimers: Please be aware that even after your booking is confirmed, your itinerary may be subject to changes based on availability and to ensure we deliver the best possible experience to our clients.