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Helen Frankenthaler

Helen Frankenthaler, Painted on 21st Street, 1950 Oil, sand, plaster of Paris, and coffee grounds on sized, primed canvas, 69 ⅛ × 97 inches (175.6 × 246.4 cm), Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Helen Frankenthaler, Painted on 21st Street, 1950

Oil, sand, plaster of Paris, and coffee grounds on sized, primed canvas, 69 ⅛ × 97 inches (175.6 × 246.4 cm), Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Helen Frankenthaler, Untitled, 1951 Oil and enamel on sized, primed canvas, 56 ⅜ × 84 ½ inches (143.2 × 214.6 cm), Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Helen Frankenthaler, Untitled, 1951

Oil and enamel on sized, primed canvas, 56 ⅜ × 84 ½ inches (143.2 × 214.6 cm), Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas
© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Helen Frankenthaler, Mountains and Sea, 1952 Oil and charcoal on unsized, unprimed canvas, 86 ⅜ × 117 ¼ inches (219.4 × 297.8 cm), Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, New York, on extended loan to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Helen Frankenthaler, Mountains and Sea, 1952

Oil and charcoal on unsized, unprimed canvas, 86 ⅜ × 117 ¼ inches (219.4 × 297.8 cm), Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, New York, on extended loan to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Helen Frankenthaler, Open Wall, 1953 Oil on unsized, unprimed canvas, 53 ¾ × 131 inches (136.5 × 332.7 cm)© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Helen Frankenthaler, Open Wall, 1953

Oil on unsized, unprimed canvas, 53 ¾ × 131 inches (136.5 × 332.7 cm)
© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Helen Frankenthaler, Trojan Gates, 1955 Oil and enamel on sized, primed canvas, 72 × 48 ⅞ inches (182.9 × 124.1 cm), Museum of Modern Art, New York© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Helen Frankenthaler, Trojan Gates, 1955

Oil and enamel on sized, primed canvas, 72 × 48 ⅞ inches (182.9 × 124.1 cm), Museum of Modern Art, New York
© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Helen Frankenthaler, Europa, 1957 Oil on unsized, unprimed canvas, 70 × 54 ½ inches (177.8 × 138.4 cm)© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Helen Frankenthaler, Europa, 1957

Oil on unsized, unprimed canvas, 70 × 54 ½ inches (177.8 × 138.4 cm)
© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Helen Frankenthaler, Madridscape, 1958 Charcoal, crayon, watercolor, and ink on paper, 25 ¼ × 34 ½ inches (64.1 × 87.6 cm)© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Helen Frankenthaler, Madridscape, 1958

Charcoal, crayon, watercolor, and ink on paper, 25 ¼ × 34 ½ inches (64.1 × 87.6 cm)
© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Helen Frankenthaler, First Creatures, 1959 Oil, enamel, charcoal, and pencil on sized, primed canvas, 64 ¾ × 111 inches (164.5 × 281.9 cm)© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Helen Frankenthaler, First Creatures, 1959

Oil, enamel, charcoal, and pencil on sized, primed canvas, 64 ¾ × 111 inches (164.5 × 281.9 cm)
© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Helen Frankenthaler, Untitled, 1959–60 Oil and charcoal on sized, primed linen, 89 ¾ × 69 ¾ inches (228 × 177.2 cm)© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Helen Frankenthaler, Untitled, 1959–60

Oil and charcoal on sized, primed linen, 89 ¾ × 69 ¾ inches (228 × 177.2 cm)
© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Helen Frankenthaler, May Scene, 1961 Oil on sized, primed linen, 35 ⅞ × 59 ⅞ inches (91.1 × 152.1 cm)© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Helen Frankenthaler, May Scene, 1961

Oil on sized, primed linen, 35 ⅞ × 59 ⅞ inches (91.1 × 152.1 cm)
© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Helen Frankenthaler, Celebration Bouquet, 1962 Oil on sized, primed linen, 13 ⅜ × 29 ⅜ inches (34 × 74.6 cm)© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Helen Frankenthaler, Celebration Bouquet, 1962

Oil on sized, primed linen, 13 ⅜ × 29 ⅜ inches (34 × 74.6 cm)
© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Helen Frankenthaler, Cool Summer, 1962 Oil on canvas, 69 ¾ × 120 inches (177.2 × 304.8 cm)© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Helen Frankenthaler, Cool Summer, 1962

Oil on canvas, 69 ¾ × 120 inches (177.2 × 304.8 cm)
© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Helen Frankenthaler, Milkwood Arcade, 1963 Acrylic on canvas, 86 ½ × 80 ¾ inches (219.7 × 205.1 cm)© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Helen Frankenthaler, Milkwood Arcade, 1963

Acrylic on canvas, 86 ½ × 80 ¾ inches (219.7 × 205.1 cm)
© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Helen Frankenthaler, Provincetown Window, 1963–64 Acrylic on canvas, 82 ⅜ × 81 ⅞ inches (209.2 × 208 cm)© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Helen Frankenthaler, Provincetown Window, 1963–64

Acrylic on canvas, 82 ⅜ × 81 ⅞ inches (209.2 × 208 cm)
© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Helen Frankenthaler, Square Field, 1966 Acrylic on canvas, 22 × 28 inches (55.9 × 71.1 cm)© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Tim Pyle

Helen Frankenthaler, Square Field, 1966

Acrylic on canvas, 22 × 28 inches (55.9 × 71.1 cm)
© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Tim Pyle

Helen Frankenthaler, The Human Edge, 1967 Acrylic on canvas, 124 × 93 ¼ inches (315 × 236.9 cm), Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: courtesy Everson Museum of Art

Helen Frankenthaler, The Human Edge, 1967

Acrylic on canvas, 124 × 93 ¼ inches (315 × 236.9 cm), Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York
© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: courtesy Everson Museum of Art

Helen Frankenthaler, Sesame, 1970 Acrylic on canvas, 106 × 82 ½ inches (269.2 × 209.6 cm)© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Helen Frankenthaler, Sesame, 1970

Acrylic on canvas, 106 × 82 ½ inches (269.2 × 209.6 cm)
© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Helen Frankenthaler, Nature Abhors a Vaccum, 1973 Acrylic on canvas, 103 ½ × 112 inches (262.9 × 284.5 cm), National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Helen Frankenthaler, Nature Abhors a Vaccum, 1973

Acrylic on canvas, 103 ½ × 112 inches (262.9 × 284.5 cm), National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Helen Frankenthaler, Savage Breeze, 1974 8-color woodcut from 8 woodblocks on handmade paper, 31 ½ × 27 inches (80 × 68.6 cm), Williams College Museum of Art, Massachusetts© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/Universal Limited Art Editions (ULAE), West Islip, LI, New York

Helen Frankenthaler, Savage Breeze, 1974

8-color woodcut from 8 woodblocks on handmade paper, 31 ½ × 27 inches (80 × 68.6 cm), Williams College Museum of Art, Massachusetts
© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/Universal Limited Art Editions (ULAE), West Islip, LI, New York

Helen Frankenthaler, Rapunzel, 1974 Acrylic on canvas, 108 × 81 inches (274.3 × 205.7 cm)© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Helen Frankenthaler, Rapunzel, 1974

Acrylic on canvas, 108 × 81 inches (274.3 × 205.7 cm)
© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Helen Frankenthaler, Sentry, 1976 Acrylic on canvas, 114 × 90 inches (289.6 × 228.6 cm)© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Helen Frankenthaler, Sentry, 1976

Acrylic on canvas, 114 × 90 inches (289.6 × 228.6 cm)
© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Helen Frankenthaler, Mineral Kingdom, 1976 Acrylic on canvas, 69 × 108 ½ inches (175.3 × 275.6 cm)© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Helen Frankenthaler, Mineral Kingdom, 1976

Acrylic on canvas, 69 × 108 ½ inches (175.3 × 275.6 cm)
© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Helen Frankenthaler, Grey Fireworks, 1982 Acrylic on canvas, 72 × 118 ½ inches (182.9 × 301 cm)© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Helen Frankenthaler, Grey Fireworks, 1982

Acrylic on canvas, 72 × 118 ½ inches (182.9 × 301 cm)
© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Helen Frankenthaler, Covent Garden Study: Final Maquette for Set, Third Movement, Royal Ballet Number Three, 1984 Acrylic on canvas, 16 ⅛ × 28 ¾ inches (41 × 73 cm), Kettle’s Yard, University of Cambridge© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Helen Frankenthaler, Covent Garden Study: Final Maquette for Set, Third Movement, Royal Ballet Number Three, 1984

Acrylic on canvas, 16 ⅛ × 28 ¾ inches (41 × 73 cm), Kettle’s Yard, University of Cambridge
© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Helen Frankenthaler, Columbine, 1985 Acrylic on canvas, 81 ¼ × 48 ¾ inches (206.4 × 123.8 cm)© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Helen Frankenthaler, Columbine, 1985

Acrylic on canvas, 81 ¼ × 48 ¾ inches (206.4 × 123.8 cm)
© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Helen Frankenthaler, Syzygy, 1987 Acrylic on canvas, 88 ¼ × 59 ½ inches (224.2 × 151.1 cm)© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Helen Frankenthaler, Syzygy, 1987

Acrylic on canvas, 88 ¼ × 59 ½ inches (224.2 × 151.1 cm)
© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Helen Frankenthaler, Gateway, 1982–88 (recto) Recto: lost-wax bronze casting with applied patinas and 28-color intaglio print with etching, relief, and aquatint, with borders hand stenciled on three sheets; verso: 3 sandblasted bronze panels hand painted by the artist with a mixture of chemicals, pigments, and dyes; 81 × 107 × 4 ½ inches (205.7 × 271.8 × 11.4 cm); edition 6/12; cast at Tallix Foundry, Beacon, New York, printed and published at Tyler Graphics Ltd., Bedford Village, NY© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/Tyler Graphics Ltd. 1987

Helen Frankenthaler, Gateway, 1982–88 (recto)

Recto: lost-wax bronze casting with applied patinas and 28-color intaglio print with etching, relief, and aquatint, with borders hand stenciled on three sheets; verso: 3 sandblasted bronze panels hand painted by the artist with a mixture of chemicals, pigments, and dyes; 81 × 107 × 4 ½ inches (205.7 × 271.8 × 11.4 cm); edition 6/12; cast at Tallix Foundry, Beacon, New York, printed and published at Tyler Graphics Ltd., Bedford Village, NY
© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/Tyler Graphics Ltd. 1987

Helen Frankenthaler, Gateway, 1982–88 (verso) Recto: lost-wax bronze casting with applied patinas and 28-color intaglio print with etching, relief, and aquatint, with borders hand stenciled on three sheets; verso: 3 sandblasted bronze panels hand painted by the artist with a mixture of chemicals, pigments, and dyes; 81 × 107 × 4 ½ inches (205.7 × 271.8 × 11.4 cm); edition 6/12; cast at Tallix Foundry, Beacon, New York, printed and published at Tyler Graphics Ltd., Bedford Village, NY© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/Tyler Graphics Ltd. 1987

Helen Frankenthaler, Gateway, 1982–88 (verso)

Recto: lost-wax bronze casting with applied patinas and 28-color intaglio print with etching, relief, and aquatint, with borders hand stenciled on three sheets; verso: 3 sandblasted bronze panels hand painted by the artist with a mixture of chemicals, pigments, and dyes; 81 × 107 × 4 ½ inches (205.7 × 271.8 × 11.4 cm); edition 6/12; cast at Tallix Foundry, Beacon, New York, printed and published at Tyler Graphics Ltd., Bedford Village, NY
© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/Tyler Graphics Ltd. 1987

Helen Frankenthaler, Flirt, 1995 Acrylic on paper, 60 ½ × 89 ½ inches (153.7 × 227.3 cm)© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Helen Frankenthaler, Flirt, 1995

Acrylic on paper, 60 ½ × 89 ½ inches (153.7 × 227.3 cm)
© 2018 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

About

A line, color, shapes, spaces, all do one thing for and within themselves, and yet do something else, in relation to everything that is going on within the four sides [of the canvas]. A line is a line, but [also] is a color. . . . It does this here, but that there. The canvas surface is flat and yet the space extends for miles. What a lie, what trickery—how beautiful is the very idea of painting.
—Helen Frankenthaler

Helen Frankenthaler (1928–2011), whose career spanned six decades, has long been recognized as one of the great American artists of the twentieth century. A member of the second generation of postwar American abstract painters, she is widely credited with playing a pivotal role in the transition from Abstract Expressionism to Color Field painting. Through her invention of the soak-stain technique, she expanded the possibilities of abstraction, while at times referencing figuration and landscape in highly personal ways. She produced a body of work whose impact on contemporary art has been profound and continues to grow.

Frankenthaler was born on December 12, 1928, and raised in New York. She attended the Dalton School, where she received her earliest art instruction from Rufino Tamayo. In 1949 she graduated from Bennington College, Vermont, where she was a student of Paul Feeley, following which she studied briefly with Hans Hofmann.

Frankenthaler exhibited her work professionally for the first time in 1950, at the Kootz Gallery in New York, when Adolph Gottlieb selected her painting Beach (1950) for inclusion in Fifteen Unknowns: Selected by Artists of the Kootz Gallery. Her first solo exhibition was presented in 1951, at New York’s Tibor de Nagy Gallery, and that year she was also included in the landmark 9th St. Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture in New York.

In 1952 Frankenthaler created Mountains and Sea, her breakthrough soak-stain painting. She poured thinned paint directly onto raw, unprimed canvas laid on the studio floor, working from all sides to create floating fields of translucent color. Mountains and Sea was immediately influential for the artists who formed the Color Field school of painting, notable among them Morris Louis and Kenneth Noland.

As early as 1959 Frankenthaler began to be a regular presence in major international exhibitions. That year she won first prize at the Première Biennale de Paris, and in 1966 she represented the United States at the 33rd Biennale di Venezia, alongside Ellsworth Kelly, Roy Lichtenstein, and Jules Olitski. She had her first museum retrospective in 1960, at New York’s Jewish Museum, and her second in 1969, at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, followed by an international tour. Additional museum retrospectives have been held at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, and touring venues (1985, works on paper); Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas, and touring venues, including Museum of Modern Art, New York (1989, paintings); National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, and touring venues (1993, prints); Naples Museum of Art, Florida, and touring venues, including Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut (2002, woodcuts); and Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, Florida, and touring venue, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, Scotland (2003, works on paper).

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Helen Frankenthaler

Photo: Alexander Liberman © J. Paul Getty Trust. Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles

Carol Armstrong and John Elderfield seated in front of a painting by Helen Frankenthaler

In Conversation
Carol Armstrong and John Elderfield

In conjunction with the exhibition Drawing within Nature: Paintings from the 1990s at Gagosian in New York, Carol Armstrong and John Elderfield discuss Helen Frankenthaler’s paintings and large-scale works on paper dating from 1990 to 1995.

Helen Frankenthaler, Madame Butterfly, 102 color woodcut from 46 woodblocks

The Romance of a New Medium: Helen Frankenthaler and the Art of Collaboration

Inspired by the recent retrospective of Helen Frankenthaler’s woodcuts at the Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, William Davie writes about the artist’s innovative journey with printmaking. Davie illuminates Frankenthaler’s formative collaborations with master printers Tatyana Grosman and Kenneth Tyler.

Katy Hessel, Matthew Holman, and Eleanor Nairne

In Conversation
Katy Hessel, Matthew Holman, and Eleanor Nairne on Helen Frankenthaler

Broadcaster and art historian Katy Hessel; Matthew Holman, associate lecturer in English at University College London; and Eleanor Nairne, curator at the Barbican Art Gallery, London, discuss Helen Frankenthaler’s early training, the development of her signature soak-stain technique and subsequent shifts in style, and her connections to the London art world.

Helen Frankenthaler, Heart of London Map, steel sculpture

Helen Frankenthaler: A Painter’s Sculptures

On the occasion of four exhibitions in London exploring different aspects of Helen Frankenthaler’s work, Lauren Mahony introduces texts by the sculptor Anthony Caro and by the artist herself on her relatively unfamiliar first body of sculpture, made in the summer of 1972 in Caro’s London studio.

Carrie Mae Weems’s The Louvre (2006), on the cover of Gagosian Quarterly, Summer 2021

Now available
Gagosian Quarterly Summer 2021

The Summer 2021 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available, featuring Carrie Mae Weems’s The Louvre (2006) on its cover.

Augurs of Spring

Augurs of Spring

As spring approaches in the Northern Hemisphere, Sydney Stutterheim reflects on the iconography and symbolism of the season in art both past and present.

Helen Frankenthaler, Cool Summer, 1962, oil on canvas, 69 ¾ × 120 inches (177.2 × 304.8 cm), Collection Helen Frankenthaler Foundation.

Building a Legacy
The Helen Frankenthaler Foundation on COVID-19 Relief Funding

The Quarterly’s Alison McDonald speaks with Clifford Ross, Frederick J. Iseman, and Dr. Lise Motherwell, members of the board of directors of the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, and Elizabeth Smith, executive director, about the foundation’s decision to establish a multiyear initiative dedicated to providing $5 million in covid-19 relief for artists and arts professionals.

A portrait of Betty Parsons surrounded by art.

Game Changer
Betty Parsons

Wyatt Allgeier pays homage to the renowned gallerist and artist Betty Parsons (1900–1982).

Helen Frankenthaler in her studio in Provincetown. Black and white image.

Abstract Climates: Helen Frankenthaler in Provincetown

Lise Motherwell, a stepdaughter of Helen Frankenthaler and vice president of the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, and Elizabeth Smith, executive director of the Foundation, recently cocurated an exhibition of the artist’s work entitled Abstract Climates: Helen Frankenthaler in Provincetown. Here they discuss the origin of the exhibition, the relationship between the artist’s work and her summers spent in Provincetown, and the presentations at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum, in 2018, and the Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, New York, in 2019.

Helen Frankenthaler, Riverhead, 1963 (detail).

Frankenthaler

On the occasion of the exhibition Pittura/Panorama: Paintings by Helen Frankenthaler, 1952–1992, at the Museo di Palazzo Grimani in Venice, Italy, art historians John Elderfield and Pepe Karmel discuss the concept of the panorama in relation to the artist’s work. Their conversation traces developments in Frankenthaler’s approach to composition, the boundaries and conventions of abstraction, and how, in many ways, her career continually challenged established theories of art history.

Helen Frankenthaler in gondola with various friends, Venice, June 1966

Pittura/Panorama: Paintings by Helen Frankenthaler, 1952–1992

Pittura/Panorama: Paintings by Helen Frankenthaler, 1952–1992 marks the first time that Frankenthaler’s paintings have been exhibited in Venice since her inclusion in the 1966 Biennale as part of the US Pavilion. This video, including interviews with the show’s curator, John Elderfield; the chairman of the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Clifford Ross; and the Foundation’s executive director, Elizabeth Smith, provides viewers with an in-depth look at the fourteen paintings included in the exhibition.

Gagosian Quarterly Summer 2019

Now available
Gagosian Quarterly Summer 2019

The Summer 2019 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available, featuring a detail from Afrylic by Ellen Gallagher on its cover.

Fairs, Events & Announcements

Helen Frankenthaler, Reef, 1991 © 2023 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Rob McKeever

Panel Discussion

Expanding Climate Action in the Visual Arts

Friday, September 22, 2023, 5:30pm
New Museum, New York

Join the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation during Climate Week NYC for a panel discussion featuring recent Frankenthaler Climate Initiative (FCI) grantees. Through a moderated conversation with museum and university leaders, Expanding Climate Action in the Visual Arts explores current models for energy efficiency and clean energy in the arts—and concludes with a series of action items and next steps that arts organizations can consider taking. The event includes brief presentations by several recent FCI grant recipients, plus invited leaders from the cultural field who are shaping climate change action in the visual arts. The event will also be livestreamed.

Register

Helen Frankenthaler, Reef, 1991 © 2023 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Rob McKeever

Elizabeth Smith. Photo: Scott Rudd

Talk

Elizabeth Smith
On Helen Frankenthaler

Sunday, May 21, 2023, 5pm EDT

Elizabeth Smith, executive director of the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, will give a talk as part of the Art of Relationships, a series of Zoom lectures organized in conjunction with the exhibition Creative Exchanges: Artists in Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner’s Address Books, on view at the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center, East Hampton, New York, through July 30, 2023. Smith will consider some of Frankenthaler’s earliest works and will reflect on what made Frankenthaler’s painting, in Morris Louis’s later words, a “bridge between Pollock and what was possible” for other artists in the 1950s.

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Elizabeth Smith. Photo: Scott Rudd

Gagosian’s booth at ART SG 2023. Artwork, left to right: © Ashley Bickerton; © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2022; © Banksy; © Zeng Fanzhi; © 2020 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All rights reserved. Photo: Sebastiano Pellion di Persano

Art Fair

ART SG 2023

January 12–15, 2023, booth BF05
Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre, Singapore
artsg.com

Gagosian is pleased to announce the gallery’s participation in the inaugural edition of ART SG, with a selection of works by international contemporary artists including Banksy, Georg Baselitz, Ashley Bickerton, Edmund de Waal, Helen Frankenthaler, Katharina Grosse, Mark Grotjahn, Damien Hirst, Howard Hodgkin, Thomas Houseago, Tetsuya Ishida, Alex Israel, Jia Aili, Harmony Korine, Takashi Murakami, Nam June Paik, Giuseppe Penone, Ed Ruscha, Spencer Sweeney, Sarah Sze, Tatiana Trouvé, Anna Weyant, Jonas Wood, and Zeng Fanzhi.

Gagosian’s booth at ART SG 2023. Artwork, left to right: © Ashley Bickerton; © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2022; © Banksy; © Zeng Fanzhi; © 2020 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All rights reserved. Photo: Sebastiano Pellion di Persano

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Museum Exhibitions

Rick Lowe, Fire #4: This Time Athens, 2023, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC © Rick Lowe Studio

Opening this Week

Revolutions
Art from the Hirshhorn Collection, 1860–1960

March 22, 2024–April 20, 2025
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC
hirshhorn.si.edu

Revolutions is a major survey of 270 artworks by 126 artists from the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden’s permanent collection. Celebrating the museum’s fiftieth anniversary, the exhibition aims to capture the shifting cultural landscapes of a century defined by new currents in science and philosophy and ever-increasing mechanization. Shown alongside these historic works are contributions from nineteen contemporary artists whose practices demonstrate how many revolutionary ideas from a hundred years ago remain critical today. Work by Francis Bacon, Amoako Boafo, Alexander Calder, Willem de Kooning, Helen FrankenthalerRick LoweSally Mann, Man Ray, Henry MoorePablo PicassoNathaniel Mary Quinn, and Cy Twombly is included.

Rick Lowe, Fire #4: This Time Athens, 2023, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC © Rick Lowe Studio

Helen Frankenthaler, April Mood, 1974 © 2024 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: courtesy ASOM Collection

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Helen Frankenthaler in
Aktion, Geste, Farbe: Künstlerinnen und Abstraktion weltweit 1940–70

December 2, 2023–March 3, 2024
Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Germany
kunsthalle-bielefeld.de

This exhibition, whose title translates to Action, Gesture, Paint: Women Artists and Global Abstraction 1940–70, brings together more than 150 paintings by an overlooked generation of eighty international women artists. The exhibition’s geographic breadth demonstrates that, while Abstract Expressionism is said to have begun in the United States, artists all over the world were exploring similar themes of materiality, freedom of expression, perception, and gesture in the postwar period. The exhibition originated at Whitechapel Gallery, London. Work by Helen Frankenthaler is included.

Helen Frankenthaler, April Mood, 1974 © 2024 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: courtesy ASOM Collection

Helen Frankenthaler, Overture, 1992 © 2023 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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The Inner Island

April 28–November 4, 2023
Fondation Carmignac, Porquerolles, France
www.fondationcarmignac.com

This exhibition, which features more than eighty works by fifty artists, presents visitors with new, unknown worlds floating outside familiar geographies and temporalities. The artists included break away from reality, bringing to life fictional, mental, and abstract islands. Work by Harold Ancart, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Alexander Calder, Helen Frankenthaler, Simon Hantaï, Roy Lichtenstein, Albert Oehlen, and Christopher Wool is included.

Helen Frankenthaler, Overture, 1992 © 2023 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Helen Frankenthaler, April Mood, 1974, installation view, Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles, France © 2023 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: François Deladerrière

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Helen Frankenthaler in
Action, Gesture, Paint: Women Artists and Global Abstraction 1940–70

June 3–October 22, 2023
Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles, France
www.fondation-vincentvangogh-arles.org

Action, Gesture, Paint brings together more than 150 paintings by an overlooked generation of eighty international women artists. The exhibition’s geographic breadth demonstrates that, while Abstract Expressionism is said to have begun in the United States, artists all over the world were exploring similar themes of materiality, freedom of expression, perception, and gesture in the postwar period. This exhibition has traveled from Whitechapel Gallery, London. Work by Helen Frankenthaler is included.

Helen Frankenthaler, April Mood, 1974, installation view, Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles, France © 2023 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: François Deladerrière

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Press

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