A prep course for the month-long World Cup soccer tournament, a worldwide pheno

 Kooning as a way to unfold the body in keeping with the two-dimensional space o

f painting . He had mastered the device in the vigorous , mural-like abstraction

 `` Excavation , '' painted for the 1950 Venice Biennale and completed while he 

was struggling with the newer figure paintings . Formally , in the show 's group

 of 14 paintings dating from 1949 to 1955 , the women are squared off , flattene

d out , interlocked with the surrounding environment . Raucous , funny , flirtat

ious and aggressive , they embody the mesmerizing fierceness of flesh and blood 

. De Kooning used a variety of tricks to pump up the sensuously inviting tactili

ty of his surfaces , including his famous wet-on-wet technique of mixing salad o

il in the pigment , in order to make it slithery , fluid and receptive to sustai

ned periods of work . It didn't dry out fast . As he worked he would repeatedly 

scrape down the surface , leaving layered smears and traces of underpaint to sho

w through , like insistent memories of past encounters piling up one atop the ot

her . His paintings can look slatternly , as if they 've been around . ( Begin o

ptional trim ) When engrossed by that gorgeously seductive dynamic , the viewer 

may easily forget the complicated art scene de Kooning worked in . He had been l

iving in New York for about a decade when the influx of European modern artists 

fleeing Hitler arrived , and after World War II he naturally stayed . ( He still

 wasn't a citizen and wouldn't become one until 1962 , but he considered himself

 an American nonetheless . ) The volatile avant-garde context that marked the im

mediate postwar years in Manhattan was small , cliquish and without much public 

following . But as a devastated Europe lay in ruins , the sense of needing to pi

ck up art 's fallen torch was strong . Abstract Expressionism was thus tinctured

 with a missionary aura . De Kooning , the European expatriate who had worked hi

s way across the Atlantic and then jumped ship when docked at Newport News , Va.

 , was in part a bridge between the Old World and the New . In many ways his wor

k embodied the span . The National Gallery has done a remarkably good job , trip

ping up just once at the beginning and once at the end of the exhibition . At th

e start a serious fault is the absence of `` Pink Angels , '' a smallish paintin

g inspired by Picasso but marked by a voluptuous , transparent linearity wholly 

de Kooning 's own . Without it , you just can't make the leap from the show 's f

irst room , with its six relatively conventional pink and ochre studies of male 

and female figures , to the startling second room , filled with six exciting bla

ck paintings , through which whiplash lines of white create a magical interpenet

ration of crystalline and biomorphic shapes . With these , de Kooning was on his

 way . Despite numerous entreaties , according to the National Gallery , Los Ang

eles collector Frederick Weisman simply would not lend `` Pink Angels . '' The s

econd problem is the final room . In the 1980s and in his increasingly debilitat

ed dotage de Kooning was still enthralled with the soul-shattering , life-alteri

ng possibilities for visual pleasure in painting . But the eight selected canvas

es are uneven at best . Especially on the heels of the knockout gallery of gorge

ous pictures from 1977-78 that immediately precedes it , the erratic last room i

nappropriately sends you out the door with a few doubts about the claims that ha

ve been made for de Kooning 's last works . Despite these small deficiencies , t

he retrospective remains a superlative achievement that sets up an extravagant a

rgument in favor of a kind of visual knowledge often erroneously dismissed as ir

relevant today , but nonetheless being championed by many of our most compelling

 younger artists . De Kooning at 90 stands as a gorgeously convincing precedent 

.

 BRUSSELS , Belgium Russia 's Pavel S. Grachev was the perfect host Wednesday as

 he opened a meeting with U.S. . Defense Secretary William J. Perry. The irony o

f the situation only seemed to buoy his mood even more . `` It seems strange to 

me that I 'm welcoming you here to this building today , '' the Russian defense 

minister told his American counterpart , smiling at the circumstances . Perry to

o broke into a grin . The session over which Grachev was presiding was being hel

d in Conference Room No. 2 at NATO headquarters , and the sign outside announced

 `` Russia '' for the Russian delegation . Grachev , a four-star general who mad

e 634 parachute jumps while he was an officer in the former Soviet army , was ta

king the biggest leap of his career : He was here to sign Russia up for NATO as 

a sort of associate member for now . Moreover , the Russians were not the only m

ilitary officials from the former East Bloc to rate their own suite at this week

 's NATO ministerial meeting . The broad , heavily carpeted concourse that leads

 to NATO 's main meeting chamber was dotted with the oversized military caps of 

officers from 18 other one-time Communist countries . It might have been a meeti

ng of the now-defunct Warsaw Pact , joked a local wag . The session , which foll

owed a meeting of NATO defense ministers on Tuesday , marked the first meeting o

f the Partnership for Peace , an auxiliary program that the North Atlantic Treat

y Organization has set up for former East Bloc countries . And for all of the jo

king , it was one of those days on which even the most seasoned diplomats and mi

litary officers were overcome by the sense that they were witnessing an importan

t piece of history . `` I think everyone is sort of awed by it all , '' mused a 

U.S. officer who has spent his career trying to prepare for a possible confronta

tion with Soviet forces . `` I thought I 'd never see this come . '' To be sure 

, the Russians will not actually join the PfP , as it is becoming known here , u

ntil sometime in early June , when Moscow presents its final application at a me

eting of NATO foreign ministers in Istanbul , Turkey . But Grachev was here this

 week to present formally Russia 's preliminary proposal for its terms of member

ship ending weeks of hot-and-cold statements from Moscow about whether the Kreml

in would or would not sign up . And , to the relief of Western diplomats , he wa

s unambiguous about reports that the Russians would insist on special conditions

 : `` Absolutely nyet , '' he told reporters at the opening of the session . ( O

ptional add end ) A mood of optimism lasted all day Wednesday . After the mornin

g session , the NATO ministers , Grachev and the defense chiefs of the 18 Partne

rship for Peace member countries posed for what was deliberately dubbed a `` fam

ily portrait . '' And Ukraine 's defense minister , Vitaly Radetsky , who was sc

heduled to meet with Perry after the session with Grachev , refused to take offe

nse when the American was late . `` We 'll make up for it tonight , '' he said l

ightheartedly . The ironies continued into the evening . After a day of bilatera

l meetings here in Brussels , Perry and the other ministers flew by helicopter t

o the Belgian city of Mons for a tour of the new building at the allies ' Europe

an headquarters that will serve as a military center for Partnership for Peace c

ountries . The structure , which was completed in 1990 , originally was built as

 an evacuation center in case western Europe were invaded by the Soviet Bloc . A

 chunk of the fallen Berlin Wall now serves as statuary at its entrance . Pavel 

Grachev looked as though he were perfectly at home .

 WASHINGTON President Clinton Wednesday chastised Congress for trying to impose 

simplistic , `` bumper-sticker '' solutions on conflicts like Bosnia and he warn

ed that Americans must learn that efforts to expand democracy 's reach sometimes

 will be slow and flawed . Addressing the graduating class of the U.S. . Naval A

cademy in Annapolis , Md. , Clinton used Bosnia as an example of a messy , compl

icated , post-Cold War world where there are no easy answers . An effort in Cong

ress to end the arms embargo against the Bosnian Muslims so they can defend them

selves , he said , is one of those actions `` that sound simple and painless and

 good '' but will not work . Doing that , he said , would `` kill the peace proc

ess , sour our relationships with our European allies '' who support the U.N.-im

posed embargo , and undermine the relationship with Russia , which also supports

 the embargo . Lifting the embargo , he said , is part of `` the easy out of sim

plistic ideas that sound good on bumper stickers but that would have tragic cons

equences . '' Clinton , who leaves next week for the 50th anniverary commemorati

on of the D-Day invasion , said the sacrifices of the World War II generation pr

oduced the freedom and security that helped America win the Cold War . Today 's 

opportunity , he said , is that `` for the first time in history , we have the c

hance to expand the reach of democracy and economic progress across the whole of

 Europe and to the far reaches of the world . '' That task , he said , will be a

 long one . `` It took years after D-Day to not only end the war , but to build 

a lasting peace . It took decades of patience and strength and resolve to prevai

l in the Cold War . And as with generations going before , we must often be will

ing to pay the price of time , sometimes the most painful price of all , '' he s

aid . The Cold War 's end , he said , `` lifted the lid from a cauldron of long-

simmering hatreds . Now , the entire global terrain is bloody with such conflict

s . '' Instead of the superpower , bipolar world that dictated America 's polici

es for four decades , the country now is faced with a leadership role in `` a ne

w world threatened with instability , even abject chaos , rooted in the economic

 dislocations that are inherent in the change from communist to market economics

 , rooted in religious and ethnic battles long covered over by authoritarian reg

imes now gone , rooted in tribal slaughters , aggravated by environmental disast

er , by abject hunger , by mass migrations. .. . ' ' Determining which conflicts

 in such a world merit U.S. action and at what level involves `` no magic formul

a '' but an assessment of `` the cumulative weight of the American interests at 

stake . '' Making that calibration , he said , has `` not been easy or smooth ''

 and may never again be . `` The world 's most tearing conflicts , in Bosnia and

 elsewhere , are not made in a day . And one of the most frustrating things that

 you have to live with .. . is that many of these conflicts will rarely submit t

o instant solutions . '' Clinton paid tribute to the World War II veterans who s

tood for recognition in the vast stadium and said to the graduating class , the 

grandchildren of those veterans , that their challenge `` is to remember the dee

ds of those who served before you , and now to build on their work '' in protect

ing and expanding democracy and freedom . That generational theme is expected to

 be a major one of the president 's week-day European tour , which includes a nu

mber of D-Day events . Clinton opened his remarks by following the tradition of 

granting amnesty to midshipmen for rules infractions . But he pointedly noted th

at covered only minor offenses . The academy was torn by a cheating scandal that

 resulted in the expulsion of 24 midshipmen . The president noted that problem ,

 and the Tailhook scandal involving sexual harassment of female Navy officers , 

are `` troubling events , to be sure , because our military rests on honor and l

eadership . '' But , he said to the graduates and the Navy leadership , `` You h

ave my confidence . You have America 's confidence . '' And as if he were commen

ting on his own bumpy first year in office as well , he said , `` Ultimately , t

he test of leadership is not constant flawlessness . Rather , it is marked by a 

commitment to continue always to strive for the highest standards , to learn hon

estly when one falls short , and to do the right thing . ''

 WASHINGTON Students in the poorest public schools could have access to all the 

books at Harvard and the treasures of libraries and museums nationwide , if , as

 many educators and government officials hope , American schools are given free 

or inexpensive access to the developing information superhighway . Some leading 

members of the Senate , along with Education Secretary Richard W. Riley , Wednes

day urged Congress to approve a federal policy that would ensure that schools ar

e not bypassed as cable and telephone lines are installed for the electonic high

way . Riley described the superhighway as a `` seamless web of communications ne

tworks , computers , databases , and consumer electronics that will put vast amo

unts of information at our fingertips . '' If some schools cannot afford this te

chnological tool because of costly user fees , it would further widen the gap be

tween rich and poor schools , he said . A study by consumer and civil rights gro

ups issued this week raised similar concerns about how this new technology may h

ave the effect of widening the education and income gap between the wealthy and 

the poor . The information highway , a priority of the Clinton administration , 

is still being developed and how much it will cost users is unclear . But Riley 

urged Congress as it considers the Telecommunication Act of 1994 to approve a po

licy that mandates a `` public or educational lane on the information superhighw

ay . '' Sen. Fritz Hollings , D-S.C. , chairman of the Senate Committee on Comme

rce , Science and Transportation , said he , too , was concerned that the new hi

ghway might turn into a `` toll road '' only the wealthy could ride . Sen. Bob K

errey , D-Neb. , invited a principal and student from his home state to Wednesda

y 's hearing to demonstrate breakthrough educational technology being used in Ne

braska . A new IBM project called `` Eduport '' is digitalizing video stored at 

museums and universities around the country , storing it at the University of Ne

braska and then sending it , via fiber optic cable , to a public high school in 

Lincoln , Neb . Kathryn Piller , principal of Lincoln High , the one school in t

he country now using this technology , wowed the crowd in the Senate committee r

oom by punching up on a television screen footage and audio of President Frankli

n D. Roosevelt delivering his 1936 `` repudiating communism speech . '' The old 

, black and white footage , and familiar sound of his voice , is used in the sch

ool 's American history classes . This kind of technology that can bring almost 

limitless information to the most remote or poor school eventually could be used

 by millions of students , advocates said . Students would not have to be able t

o afford a trip to Smithsonian or NASA or Harvard , but would have access to all

 the educational materials they store . `` We are not out to get rid of books , 

'' said Lincoln High School student Clay Ehlers . `` We are ought to get more bo

oks . '' Ehlers told the senators that he believed students can learn better , a

nd enjoy it more , through the new technology . `` If you can see it and hear it

 and get it from anywhere in the world , there is nothing better . '' Linda Robe

rts , special adviser to Riley on technology , said some states were already mak

ing it a priority to get preferential rates for schools and libraries so that th

e new technology didn't become a tool only for those who could afford it . What 

the country did not want to see happen , she said , was for the public schools i

n some states to get on the highway and others to be bypassed . The days when No

. 2 pencils and chalkboards are all the supplies teachers needed have slipped by

 , Riley said . If the United States wants to stay competitive with other nation

s also developing similar technology , it must give all students `` full and fre

e acess '' to information highway , even if it is costly .

 CAVENDISH , Vt. . After 18 years of exile in the wooded hills of small-town Ver

mont , the great Russian writer and Nobel Prize winner Alexander Solzhenitsyn le

ft here Wednesday much as he arrived quietly and nearly alone . Accompanied by a

 few family members and surrounded by a throng of photographers , Solzhenitsyn b

egan his long-awaited journey homeward shortly after noon . Sitting in the rear 

of an Oldsmobile station wagon , the reclusive writer , who is 75 , stopped brie

fly in the drizzle at the end of his unpaved driveway . For a few moments he obl

iged the photographers by getting out of the car and posing silently next to one

 of the wooden posts that supported the gate that for two decades had kept the w

orld at bay . Having written hundreds of thousands of words at his hillside retr

eat , Solzhenitsyn had almost nothing to say . He offered a softly spoken `` Goo

dbye '' in accented English , butotherwise stuck to his promise to make no state

ments . His only utterances were , `` My son has answered all questions '' an as

sertion that was not quite true and a warning to photographers as they backed up

 into his car , `` Be careful ! Be careful ! '' His departure drew more than 20 

reporters and photographers to the unmarked dirt road that led to the Solzhenits

yn compound . Winner of the Nobel Prize for literature in 1970 for his powerful 

novels dissecting Stalinism and the Soviet state , Solzhenitsyn chose this spot 

after being expelled in 1974 from the then Soviet Union on the grounds that his 

writings had slandered the Soviet state . He continued to write books that nettl

ed the communists including the multi-volume historical novel `` The Red Wheel '

' and elected to remain here well after the collapse of the Soviet empire . Solz

henitsyn faces an uncertain future as he heads to an apartment in Moscow and , u

ltimately , a dacha outside the city . According to family members , he planned 

to fly to the West Coast and on to Vladivostok , where he plans to board a train

 for a cross-country tour of Russia . He leaves behind a town of 1,325 in centra

l Vermont that treated him just as he wished : by leaving him alone . Just outsi

de the door of the Cavendish General Store is a small wooden sign saying , `` No

 directions to the Solzhenitsyn home . '' Storekeeper Joe Allen said he stuck to

 that policy right to the end . `` I decided I didn't want anything happening to

 anybody . There 's a lot of crazy people , '' said Allen , 43 , who lives in on

e half of the building that houses the store . He said the Solzhenitsyn family w

ere `` fine people '' who had never bothered anyone . Alexander Solzhenitsyn was

 in his store just once , about three or four years ago , Allen recalled . Indee

d , sightings of Solzhenitsyn outside his wooden retreat were about as rare as e

ncounters with the moose and black bear that share these forested hills . Richar

d Svec , the Cavendish town manager , said he spoke with the author 's wife , Na

talya , Wednesday morning . `` There was a note of nervousness . But when you 'r

e moving your household halfway around the world that 's not surprising , '' he 

said . `` We did discuss that there are a lot of challenges ahead and that they 

are trying to be a constructive influence . She asked for our prayers . '' Svec 

said he understood that the family intended to keep the house for the use of two

 sons , Stephan and Ignat , who are remaining in the United States . For his par

t , Solzhenitsyn said his formal goodbyes to Cavendish on Feb. 28 at the annual 

town meeting . `` I hope that I can be of at least some help to my tortured nati

on , although it is impossible to predict how successful my efforts will be , ''

 the author explained at the time . `` You were very understanding , '' he told 

the townsfolk . `` You .. . took it upon yourselves to protect my privacy . '' `

` For this , I have been truly grateful throughout all these years . And now , a

s my stay here comes to an end , I thank you . Your kindness and cooperation hel

ped to create the best possible conditions for my work . ''

 WASHINGTON A White House review has cleared a Merit Systems Protection Board me

mber of sexually harassing an employee and then firing her after she complained 

about his conduct , administration officials said Wednesday . The officials said

 that , as a result of the review , Antonio C. Amador , will remain in his posit

ion on the board , which is responsible for reviewing federal employees ' claims

 of discrimination and sexual harassment . The White House commissioned the inve

stigation after receiving requests for an inquiry from members of the House and 

Senate committees charged with overseeing government operations . Then-White Hou

se counsel Bernard Nussbaum told the members that Clinton had decided `` that an

 independent factual review of the allegations against Mr. Amador is warranted .

 '' Under federal law , only the president may remove Amador from his position .

 Amador was appointed by then-President George Bush in 1990 . The investigation 

was assigned to Joseph G. Lynch , assistant general counsel in the Office of the

 General Counsel of the Navy . The White House said Lynch `` has more than 12 ye

ars of government experience in labor and employment law , with an expertise in 

sexual harassment matters . '' The administration officials said Lynch had submi

tted his report within the last several weeks and that Amador had been cleared .

 They did not provide details of Lynch 's findings , and an attorney for Amador 

said his client has not been informed of the outcome . The lawyer , Michael J. R

iselli , said earlier that Amador `` categorically denies any and all allegation

s and suggestions that he engaged in any form of discrimination . '' The allegat

ions against Amador were detailed in a letter signed by seven members of the Hou

se Government Operations subcommittee on employment , housing , and aviation fol

lowing a six-month investigation . According to the letter , the woman whose nam