The Dutch-born artist Willem de Kooning was a leading figure in the first generation of the New York School of Abstract Expressionism, which came to prominence in the decade following the Second World War. His breakthrough "Woman" series of the late 1940s fused abstraction and representation, featuring deconstructed representations of the female figure within a matrix of frenetic, slashing brushstrokes. "Untitled XX" belongs to a series of de Kooning’s more wholly abstract works from the late 1970s, although references to the human figure and the natural world remain discernible in the composition. Within the painting’s fluid flurry of brushstrokes, a vertical rectangle of blue evokes a window or door looking onto sky or water, while the golden pigment above calls to mind a sun-suffused sky. The central mass of sensual pink and peach tones suggests a seated human figure, perhaps inspired by the artist’s passionate love affair during this period.