Interchange, 1955 by Willem de Kooning

In 1955, Willem de Kooning completed the work Interchange. He had focused a lot of time on reworking figure studies involving women which he first started in 1948. These were associated with his solo show in 1953, paintings on the theme of the woman, which opened in New York City at that time. Some titles for these works included Woman I, Woman III, and Woman V, as well as Two Women with Still Life. By 1955, de Kooning had moved away from painting human figures and continued to use abstract renditions of NYC architecture and communities.

Willem de Kooning used quick gestural marks on the canvas. The picture features a woman sitting on a chair but the women just appear as a pick mass. When it comes to naming his paintings, he always preferred a link to the area where he lived. The Interchange got the name from the surrounding, central New York, the place he lived during that time.

Originally sold by the artist in 1955 for $4,000, it was sold by the David Geffen Foundation to Kenneth C. Griffin for $300 million in September 2015, then ranking it second on the list of most expensive paintings, only surpassed by Salvator Mundi by Leonardo da Vinci, which was sold for $450.3 million in November 2017.