In 1981, de Kooning’s paintings changed yet again when he set aside the heavy painterliness of the 1975–77 series and worked instead on smooth surfaces, glazed with bright, transparent colors. The paintings became denser in 1982, and in 1983, a more radical change occurred: the paintings became sparer, eventually to be composed of large areas of varied whites across which run narrow bands and mobile lines that cause the surface to buckle and turn in space, while shaping an elusive figuration. He recomplicated his paintings in 1985 and again in 1986–87 in paintings that evoke landscapes with windblown foliage and swaying figures.