The Nation - News from May 22, 1989

The daughter of artist Willem de Kooning, who is said to have Alzheimer’s disease, asked a court in New York to declare him mentally incompetent to manage property worth up to $150 million, according to ARTnews magazine. De Kooning, 85, whose “Pink Lady” sold at a Sotheby’s auction last year for $3.6 million, lives in East Hampton on Long Island, and continues to paint daily with the violent, slashing strokes that have earned him fame as one of America’s most prominent living artists. His daughter, Lisa, and his attorney, John Eastman, have filed a petition in state court in Mineola requesting they be named co-conservators of the artist’s assets, the magazine reported.