Helen Frankenthaler (1928-2011)

Painted in 1975, Helen Frankenthaler’s Untitled is a spectacular display of colour. Large horizontal swaths of cloudy blue and plum paint fill this intimate painting, punctuated periodically by thin strips of red and yellow that float like boats at the bottom of this abstracted sky. Influenced by painters such as Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, Frankenthaler serves as a link between Abstract Expressionism and Colour Field painting. Inspired in part by Pollock, in 1952 she pioneered her signature soak-stain technique for which she would pour diluted oil paint onto unprimed canvas to produce luminescent bands of colour. For Untitled, Frankenthaler masterfully controlled the paint to maintain rich, crystalline colours. Of her work, critic Hilton Kramer wrote, ‘We feel ourselves in the presence of imaginary landscapes —landscapes distilled into a chromatic essence’ (H. Kramer, ‘Art: Lyric Vein in Frankenthaler Paintings,’ New York Times, November 15, 1975, p. 21). Indeed, Untitled is a lyrical landscape, supersaturated and dreamy, waiting to be discovered.