“For one thing, I want gesture—any kind of gesture, all kinds of gesture—gentle or brutal, joyous or tragic; the gestures of space soaring, sinking, streaming, whirling; the gestures of light flowing or spurting through color. I see everything as possessing or possessed by gesture.”

—Elaine de Kooning, 1959

Last night at Berry Campbell, the opening of Elaine de Kooning’s exhibition felt like a reunion. The turnout was overwhelming, but what struck me most was the warmth. Old friends, people close to the artist, and many younger artists came together with an affection that gave the evening a special intimacy. They were celebrating a great painter and art critic, and a woman whose tenderness remains alive in the memories of those who knew her.

For me, that was the strength of this opening: seeing different generations gather around a body of work and an affection that continues to endure.

The exhibition brings together paintings and works on paper made between 1948 and 1988, revealing the breadth of a practice that found possibilities in abstraction, portraiture, and figures in motion. According to Berry Campbell, several works are being shown for the first time since the artist’s death in 1989. The opportunity to encounter these rarely seen pieces gives the exhibition particular significance.

A restless question connects the different aspects of her painting: how to capture a presence without arresting its energy. In Elaine’s work, gesture builds a figure while also threatening to dissolve it. A brushstroke can give someone physical substance or carry them toward abstraction. That tension asks us to look actively; recognition happens as the image seems to continue taking shape.

The National Portrait Gallery emphasized this pursuit in its 2015–2016 exhibition: Elaine sought the qualities that allow us to recognize someone beyond their facial features. A posture, a tilt of the body, a way of occupying space could convey an identity. That approach to looking feels especially meaningful after an evening devoted to recognizing and remembering her.

The works presented here include California (1958–1960), an abstraction spanning eleven feet; portraits of Alex Katz, Aristodemos Kaldis, and Toni Ross; works from her John F. Kennedy series; and Bacchus #20-G (1983). Alongside them, Scrimmage (Basketball #3), from 1948, traces her interest in movement to an early stage of her career. This range invites us to follow the continuity of her painterly questions across four decades.

Portraiture holds a special place within this gathering. When Elaine painted friends and fellow artists, she worked with people who belonged to her life. In those encounters, observation could be intimate without losing its intensity. Affection could coexist with a demanding eye. Her portraits offer a particularly rich way to consider the relationship between her painting and her connections with others.

Her work as a critic and teacher extends that relationship. Through her writing for ARTnews, she helped explain and bring wider attention to the work of artists of her generation. Writing required close attention to the work of others; teaching required time and a willingness to support their discoveries. The exhibition includes her portrait of Toni Ross, whom Elaine mentored early in her career—a concrete expression of that part of her legacy.

I thought about this last night as I saw so many young artists in the gallery. Their presence brought a particular vitality to the gathering. Alongside those who carry personal memories of Elaine stood those who come to know her through her paintings. The exhibition created a shared space for these two ways of knowing an artist.

The affection in the room also invites careful looking. To celebrate Elaine is to spend time with the decisions within her work: the tension between figure and gesture, her persistence in finding her own way to represent life. The emotion of an opening can begin that encounter; the paintings deserve the time that follows.

I left Berry Campbell feeling that I had taken part in something deeply personal. The size of the crowd spoke to the interest her work continues to inspire. The warmth spoke to another kind of endurance: the affection a person leaves in the lives of others.

Last night, Elaine de Kooning was remembered as a painter, critic, teacher, and friend. And among so many people gathered around her paintings, the opening became something rare: an outpouring of love.

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Elaine de Kooning (1918–1989), Berry Campbell, New York. October 29–December 19, 2026.