“Inspiration is indispensable to my work, but it is hard to come by,” said Elaine de Kooning. “It is there or it is not; it is a gift of the gods.” Born in Brooklyn in 1918, de Kooning was a major Abstract Expressionist whose groundbreaking work bridged gaps between figuration and visceral brushwork. In her youth, she developed a fondness for art through museum visits with her mother. While at the Leonardo da Vinci Art School, she studied under Willem de Kooning, whom she would later marry. De Kooning transcended the label of “artist’s wife”—she founded the avant-garde The Club, wrote for Art News, and painted with a vibrant, energized restlessness. Her portraits of famous men, often faceless—from President John F. Kennedy to Frank O’Hara—became defining images of 20th-century art. This exhibition spans de Kooning’s four-decade career and includes many rarely displayed works. —Maggie Turner