I was hired by the Akademie der Künste, Berlin to make portraits of de Kooning in his studio for a side exhibit for the de Kooning retrospective in Berlin in 1983. The Whitney Museum took over the show and the retrospective opened in New York. I made a series of Portraits of Bill in 1982 and returned in 1983 with the Red Couch to make additional portraits. Elaine joined us in the studio and she and Bill enjoyed the day remembering the times when he painted those paintings. They pulled paintings from the 50’s and 60’s and 70’s from the racks, the work from the early eighties was all around. Sorry I didn’t have a video camera!
