Dutch-born Willem de Kooning, whose swirls and slashes of colour helped define abstract expressionism and made him one of the 20th century's greatest painters, died in his New York studio Wednesday. He was 92.

De Kooning's abstract expressionist works included traces of the earlier surrealist movement and prefigured Pop art.

Along with Jackson Pollock, he led the group of artists who helped New York replace Paris as the center of the art world in the years after World War II.

De Kooning painted daily until the late 1980s, even after being diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.

In 1989, after a bitter court fight, he was declared mentally incompetent and control of his estate was given to his attorney and his daughter, Lisa, who is his only survivor.

De Kooning's death on Wednesday came just two months after New York's Museum of Modern Art opened an exhibit of his late paintings, entitled «Objects of Desire.»

Vintage works consistently sold for over 1 (m) million U-S dollars, and his masterpiece 'Interchange' brought a stunning 20-point-6 (m) million in 1989.

De Kooning was known for having difficulty declaring his paintings complete, but his output increased in the 1980s, when he produced more than 300 works.

The funeral is scheduled for Saturday afternoon at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in East Hampton.

A public memorial service will be held later.