de Kooning's late colours and forms: dementia, creativity, and the healing power of art.

A tangle of forms and colours passes before us (figure 1). A white background contains long sinuous brush strokes. Primary colours-yellow, red, and blue-mix with hues of oranges and greens. The yellow shades provide depth. The images seem to move all over the canvas. The red lines emerge from the white background, swirl, some mingle with the others, still others immediately vanish. On the left, white shapes still evolve; in the centre, a massive blob and a circle float; and in the upper right quadrant an oval formation twists as it bumps against the