Abstract Expressionist painter Willem de Kooning was enticed to work in the lithographic medium by the printers Fred Genis and Irwin Hollander of Hollander Workshop in New York City. De Kooning initially found the complexity of the lithographic process off-putting and an impediment to the spontaneity and vitality of his images. A more sympathetic way of working was subsequently devised so the artist could make his images directly onto transfer paper, which the printers subsequently transferred onto the printing plate. In the year from June 1970, de Kooning produced twenty-four lithographs that are remarkable for introducing the large painterly gestures and spontaneous mark-making of his paintings into the print medium.