1973, signed on the reverse and numbered 8/12 (there were also 3 artist's proofs), and with the Modern Art Foundry, New York stamp at edge of base. Bronze with black patina.

Provenance: The Artist.
Xavier Fourcade, Inc., New York, New York.
The Estate of Lee & Gilbert Bachman, Atlanta, Georgia & Boca Raton, Florida (acquired directly from the above in 1986).
EXHIBITED:
"De Kooning: Major Paintings and Sculpture," Pollock Gallery, Toronto, October - November, 1974 (another cast exhibited).
Marion Koogler McNay Art Institute, Collector-Gallery VIII, San Antonio, Texas, November - December 1974 (another cast exhibited).
"De Kooning: Drawings/Sculptures," a traveling exhibition: Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Washington University Gallery of Art, St. Louis, Missouri, March, 1974 - June, 1975, no. 148 (another cast exhibited).
"Thirty-Fourth Exhibition of the Society for Contemporary Art," Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, May - June, 1975 (illustrated in the exhibition catalogue n.p.).
"Willem de Kooning," a traveling exhibition: Fuji Television Gallery, Tokyo, Japan; Galerie des Arts, Paris, France, September - November 1975, no. 43 (another cast exhibited and illustrated in the exhibition catalogue).
"De Kooning: New Works - Paintings and Sculptures," Fourcade, Droll, Inc., New York, October - December, 1975 (another cast exhibited and illustrated in the exhibition catalogue n.p.).
"De Kooning: Paintings, Drawings, Sculpture: 1967-1975," Norton Gallery of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida, December, 1975 - February, 1976, no. 27 (another cast exhibited and illustrated in the exhibition catalogue).
"Matrix 15 (A Changing Exhibition of Contemporary Art): Willem de Kooning," Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut, December, 1975 - January, 1976.
"De Kooning: New Painting and Sculpture," Seattle Art Museum, Modern Art Pavilion, Seattle, Washington, February - March, 1976 (another cast exhibited).
"Willem de Kooning," Collection de'Art I, Amsterdam, Netherlands, May - July, 1976.
"Willem de Kooning: Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures," James Corcoran Gallery, Los Angeles, California, May - June 1976, no. 58 (another cast exhibited and illustrated in the exhibition catalogue).
"Paintings and Sculpture Today," Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, Indiana, June - July 1976.
"De Kooning: New Paintings: 1976," Xavier Fourcade, Inc., New York, October - November, 1976 (another cast exhibited).
"De Kooning: Lithographs, Paintings and Sculptures," University Art Museum, University of Texas at Austin, Texas, October - November, 1976, no. 22 (this example exhibited and illustrated in the exhibition catalogue).
"Willem de Kooning: Beelden en lithis," a traveling exhibition: Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands; Wilhelm-Lehmbruck-Museum der Stadt, Duisburg, Germany; Cabinet des estampes, Musee d'art et d'histoire, Geneva, Switzerland; Musée des Peintures et des Sculptures, Grenoble, France, March, 1976 - September, 1977, no. B22 (another cast exhibited and illustrated in the exhibition catalogue).
"De Kooning: Recent Works," Sarah Campbell Blaffer Gallery, University of Houston, Texas, January - March, 1977 (another cast exhibited).
"Works on Paper, Small Format, Object: Duchamp to Heizer," Xavier Fourcade, Inc., New York, February - March, 1977 (another cast exhibited).
Willem de Kooning: peintures et sculptures recentes," Galerie Daniel Templon, Paris, France, September - October, 1977 (another cast exhibited).
"The Sculptures of de Kooning with Related Paintings, Drawings and Lithographs," Serpentine Gallery, London and Fruit Market Gallery, Edinburgh, October, 1977 - January, 1978, no. 22 (another cast exhibited and illustrated in the exhibition catalogue).
"Willem de Kooning in East Hampton," Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, February - April 1978, no. 93 (another cast exhibited and illustrated in the exhibition catalogue).
"Large Scale Small Scale," Xavier Fourcade, Inc., New York, April - June, 1978 (another example exhibited).
"Fairfield Arts Festival, 15th Annual Fairfield Arts Festival: Artist of the Year," Museum of Art, Science and Industry, Bridgeport, Connecticut, June, 1978 (another cast exhibited).
"De Kooning 1969-78," a traveling exhibition: University of Northern Iowa Gallery of Art, Cedar Falls, Iowa; St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri; Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Ohio, October, 1978 - April, 1979, no. 35 (another cast exhibited and illustrated in the exhibition catalogue p. 46).
"Willem de Kooning: New Painting, 1978-1979," Xavier Fourcade, Inc., New York, November, 1979 (another cast exhibited).
"Willem de Kooning: Pittsburgh International Series," Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, October, 1979 - January, 1980, no. 124 (another cast exhibited and illustrated in the exhibition catalogue p. 124).
"Willem de Kooning: Paintings, Sculpture and Drawings," Richard Hines Gallery, Seattle, Washington, January - March, 1980 (another cast exhibited).
"Perceiving Modern Sculpture," Grey Art Gallery and Studies Center, New York University, New York, July - August, 1980, p. 31 (another cast exhibited and illustrated in the exhibition catalogue).
"Willem de Kooning: Gemlde, Skulpturen, Zeichnungen," Galerie Hans Strelow, Düsseldorf, Germany, November - December, 1980 (this cast exhibited).
"Willem de Kooning: Works from 1951-1981," Guild Hall, East Hampton, Long Island, New York, May - July, 1981 (another cast exhibited and illustrated in the exhibition catalogue n.p.).
"Willem de Kooning: New Paintings 1951-1981," Xavier Fourcade, Inc., New York, May - July, 1981 (another cast exhibited).
"Willem de Kooning: The North Atlantic Light, 1960-1983," a traveling exhibition: Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands, May 11 - July 3, 1983; Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark, July 15 - September 4, 1983; Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden, September 17 - October 30, 1983, no. 70 (another cast exhibited and illustrated in the exhibition catalogue p. 111).
"Willem de Kooning: The Complete Sculpture," Xavier Fourcade, Inc., New York, May - June, 1983 (another cast exhibited).
"Willem de Kooning: Skulpturen," Joseph-Haubrich-Kunsthalle, Cologne, Germany, September - October 1983, no. 20 (another cast exhibited and illustrated in the exhibition catalogue p. 72).
"Willem de Kooning: Drawing-Painting-Sculpture," Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Academie der Kunst, Berlin, Germany; Musee National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France, December, 1983 - August, 1984, no. 276 (another cast exhibited and illustrated in the exhibition catalogue p. 260).
"De Kooning," Galerie Daniel Templon, Paris, France; Galerie Hans Strelow, Düsseldorf, Germany, June - October, 1984 (another cast exhibited).
"Exhibition on the Occasion of the Presentation of the Kaiserring to Willem de Kooning," Mönchehaus Museum, Goslar, Germany, September - October, 1984 (another cast exhibited).
"Willem de Kooning: Painting and Sculpture 1979-1983," Anthony d'Offay Gallery, London, United Kingdom, November, 1984 - January, 1985, no. 18 (another cast exhibited and illustrated in the exhibition catalogue).
"Modern Masters and The Figure: Picasso-de Kooning," Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington in Seattle, Washington, September - November, 1993 (another cast exhibited).
"Willem de Kooning from the Hirshhorn Museum Collection," a traveling exhibition: Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; Fundacio "la Caixa," Centre Cultural, Barcelona, Spain; High Museum, Atlanta, Georgia; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, October, 1993 - May, 1995, no. 47 (another cast exhibited and illustrated in the exhibition catalogue p. 144).
"Willem de Kooning in Seattle: Selected Works from 1943-1985 in Public and Private Collections," Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, November, 1995 - March, 1996 (another example exhibited and illustrated in the exhibition catalogue n.p.).
"Visage: Paintings and the Human Face in 20th Century Art," a traveling exhibition: National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan; National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, Japan, January - March, 2000, no. 87 (another cast exhibited and illustrated in the exhibition catalogue p. 141).
"Willem de Kooning: Selected Paintings and Sculpture, 1964-1973," C & M Art, New York, October - December, 2000, no. 14 (another cast exhibited and illustrated).
"About Faces," C & A Art, New York, January - March, 2001 (another cast exhibited).
"Tot zo ver," Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands, April - December, 2003 (another cast exhibited).
"Restos de Mascaras," Galeria Elvira Gonzalez, Madrid, Spain, May - July, 2006 (another cast exhibited and illustrated in the exhibition catalogue n.p.).
"My Private Passion," Sammlung Hubert Looser, Vienna, Austria, April - July, 2012, no. 11 (another cast exhibited and illustrated in the exhibition catalogue pp. 27 and 124).
"Fun House," Richard Gray Gallery, New York, March - April 2013 (another cast exhibited).
"De Kooning Sculptures, 1972 - 1974," Galerie Skarstedt, New York, November 5 - December 19, 2015, no. 6 (illustrated in the exhibition catalogue p. 23).
LITERATURE:
Jane Bell, "Willem de Kooning's New Work," Arts Magazine, November 1975, p. 80 (another cast illustrated).
Carter Ratcliffe, "Willem de Kooning," Art International 19, December 1975, p. 18 (another cast illustrated).Ellen Schwartz, "Chillida Silent Music, de Kooning Eloquent and Ambivalent," Art News, March 1980, p. 68 (another cast illustrated).
Harry F. Gaugh, Willem de Kooning, New York, 1983, p. 101 (another cast illustrated fig. 90).
Joop M. Joosten, Twenty Years of Collecting, Stat Museum, 1984, p. 231 (another cast illustrated no. 441).
Phillipe Sollers, De Kooning Vite II (Euvres), Paris, 1988, no. 79 (another cast illustrated).
Continuing Education Summer Session Catalogue , School Bulletin, University of New Hampshire, Durham, 1996 (this cast illustrated on the inside cover).
Judith Zilczer, "Artist and Patron: The Formation of the Hirshhorn Museum Willem de Kooning Collection" Journal of the History of Collection, 1996, vol. 8, p. 124, no. 1 (another cast illustrated fig. 12).
B. Jansen, "Tot So Vier Up to Now: The Imaginary Museum of Rudi Fuchs," Stat Museum Amsterdam Bulletin, 2003 p. 9 (another cast illustrated).
H. Sawyer, "In Balance," New York Spaces, October 2009, p. 95 (another cast illustrated).
John Elderfield, et al., De Kooning: A Retrospective, New York, Museum of Modern Art, 2011, p. 404 (another example illustrated fig. 1).

NOTE:
This lot is accompanied by a photocopy of the bill of sale from Xavier Fourcade, Inc., New York.

In 1969, while vacationing in Rome, Italy, Willem de Kooning ran into Herzl Emanuel, an old friend from the Depression and WPA era. De Kooning quickly accepted an invitation to visit Emanuel at his Trastevere foundry where Emanuel was casting his own bronzes and reliefs. Emanuel offered de Kooning a sunlit studio space there, and over the course of several weeks, de Kooning spent his days experimenting and creating small sculptures out of discarded clay from the foundry, perhaps inspired by the ambience of the centuries old, sunlit space. Upon de Kooning's return to New York, he had 13 of these works cast in small bronze editions of six and sent them to his dealer, Xavier Fourcade. Soon after, Henry Moore saw the small works at Fourcade's gallery and enthusiastically encouraged de Kooning to translate them into larger scale. This was the beginning of a short, but important five-year period of sculptural creations that culminated in the archetypal, grand scale bronzes Clamdigger, Cross-legged Figure, Floating Figure and Seated Woman.

The present example, Head #3 dates from 1973, just one year before the artist completed his final works in bronze, and exhibits a mastery of the medium. Certainly, the clay form afforded de Kooning an even more visceral, tactile manipulation of media as evidenced by the gouged, pulled, pressed and pinched crevices seen here in Head #3. A viewer accustomed to the artist's canvases that at once convey energy and angst both in its subjects and hand of the artist will see the same energy and torment rendered in the bronzes of 1969-1974. Head #3 is a remarkable portrait of the human condition that buzzes with energy and angst, belying its inherently static form.

Indeed, as Andrew Forge notes, "There can hardly ever have been sculptures made in which the engagement with the material is more rawly exposed. And one cannot escape the feeling that somehow the work starts with this engagement, starts with it and ends with it too. In other words, the gestures, the rolling, pinching, gouging, flinging actions that one is continually reading as one moves around each piece are not agitations of the surface of the piece but rather the crests of violent actions that go to its very center" (A. Forge, "de Kooning's Sculpture," p. 37).