text Francesca Lombardi
photo credits: OKNOstudio ©2024 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / SIAE, Rome

September 25, 2024

Art & Culture

Helen Frankenthaler at Palazzo Strozzi

Until 26 January 2025 in Florence the major exhibition dedicated to a leading figure of 20th century American abstract painting

Revolution at Palazzo Strozzi until 26 January 2025, with the biggest ever Italian exhibition of the amazing art of Helen Frankenthaler, featuring works dated 1953 through 2002 shown alongside paintings and sculptures by contemporary artists such as Jackson Pollock, Morris Louis, Robert Motherwell, Kenneth Noland, Mark Rothko, David Smith, Anthony Caro and Anne Truitt. Frankenthaler’s innovative soak-stain technique has made an indelible mark on the evolution of modern painting, in pursuit of a new relationship between colour, space and form.

The technique involved application of diluted paint spread horizontally over untreated canvases to create an effect similar to watercolour, but on a larger scale and using oil paints. Frankenthaler applied the paint with brushes or sponges, or directly out of the bucket, allowing it to expand and blend naturally, forming unique interactions of colour characterised by graduated transitions and translucent overlapping. The exhibition underlines the artist’s power of innovation, also through the filter of the artistic affinities, influences and friendships characterising her personal and artistic life.

The exhibition at Palazzo Strozzi looks back over the development of Frankenthaler’s creative practice, with each room focusing on a single decade in her career between the ’50s and the early 2000s. Her artistic innovations are shown alongside paintings, sculptures and works on paper by artists who were her contemporaries to cast light on the synergies and affinities among them.

And so the exhibition demonstrates the consolidated influence of Jackson Pollock on Frankenthaler in the ’50s, comparing the black and white painting Number 14 (1951) with Frankenthaler’s Mediterranean Thoughts (1960), a colourful oil painting presenting similar “elements of abstract realism or Surrealism”, a phrase Frankenthaler used to describe Pollock’s work when she saw it for the first time in person. Tutti-Frutti (1966), a “soak-stain” painting of colourful drifting clouds, is paired with a similar work in three dimensions, Untitled (1964), a painted steel sculpture by David Smith composed of geometric shapes stacked one on top of the other and resting on four little wheels. Heart of London Map (1972), a steel assembly, is compared with the piece-by-piece construction of Anthony Caro’s Ascending the Stairs (1979-1983). Works from the ’80s, ’90s and 2000s included in the exhibition testify to how the artist continually broke the rules to explore new ways of producing art.

"We’re happy to present the work of Helen Frankenthaler, offering the public an opportunity to discover a fundamental twentieth-century artist,” says Arturo Galansino, Director General of Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi. “In her innovative research, Frankenthaler stands out as a pioneering figure in abstract painting, expanding its potential in a way that continues to inspire new generations of artists today".

Until 26 January 2025, as part of the Palazzo Strozzi Future Art programme, and in collaboration with the Hillary Merkus Recordati Foundation, the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi presents Shy Society, a spectacular site-specific installation in the Renaissance courtyard created by the Dutch duo DRIFT, famous for works and performance projects that combine art and technology. Shy Society transcends the boundaries between installation, sculpture and music, transforming the courtyard of Palazzo Strozzi into an immersive stage for a performance that combines artistic expression, nature and science. The work is composed of seven large elements placed in the open space of the courtyard, which move slowly and sinuously, opening and closing in an original choreography that follows an evocative soundtrack, a symphonic piece by the American contemporary composer RZA.