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In 1951, in preparation for the exhibition "Painters of Expressionistic Abstractions," Duncan Phillips wrote to the New York dealer Sidney Janis about de Kooning's work, pointedly expressing a preference for works like Asheville, "pure abstractions in which no figures or parts of figures are to be found." Following the exhibition, Phillips purchased Asheville, which had been lent to the show by the local collector and dealer Vincent Melzac. Asheville, however, cannot be characterized as a "pure abstraction," and when its submerged figuration surfaced with the notorious exhibition of de Kooning's aggressively figurative paintings of women in 1953, Phillips's interest may have diminished. Asheville was to be the only work by de Kooning Phillips purchased for the Collection.
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