In 1972, Willem de Looper traveled to the Western United States to see the sublime natural formations of the Grand Canyon. The rocky façade provided de Looper with a visualized storyline of millions of years of natural history.

The stunning qualities of the banded strata left a lasting impression on the artist and ultimately became a subconscious obsession. Painting with rollers enabled de Looper to depict abstracted landscapes inspired by his travels. The delicate yet deliberate choice of color and layered paint presents the viewer with a vibrant representation of the craggy façade de Looper encountered at the Grand Canyon in 1972. Willem de Looper presents paintings and works on paper from this period.

Willem de Looper (1932-2009) was born in The Hague, Netherlands and came to Washington DC in 1950. The artist landed his first solo exhibition at Jefferson Place Gallery in 1966. De Looper has been exhibited and collected by many established museums such as the National Gallery of Art, the Phillips Collection, and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, among others.