Willem de Kooning—the Dutch-born American artist at the center of the Abstract Expressionist movement in the mid-twentieth century—was unique in continually reintroducing the human figure into his largely abstract compositions. After 1938, when he met his future wife, the painter Elaine Fried, de Kooning began his first series of Women, a central subject he would continue to explore throughout his career.

This powerfully animated pastel drawing, Two Women, was created during his second major series of Women, at a time when most advanced artists were painting in a completely abstract mode. Here, the artist dissolves the figures in a sweeping array of gestural, angular marks—the traditional relationship between the subject and the surrounding space all but disappearing.