Helen Frankenthaler (1928–2011)

Elberta, 1975
acrylic on canvas, 200.7 x 246.4 cm

Helen Frankenthaler (1928–2011) was an American abstract expressionist painter, celebrated as one of the great artists of the twentieth century. Her career spanned six decades, and she played a pivotal role in the transition from Abstract Expressionism to Color Field painting. Notably, her work “Mountains and Sea” (1952) employed a technique called Soak Stain, which had the effect of watercolor despite being painted in oils.