Helen Frankenthaler (1928-2011), whose career spanned six decades, has long been recognized as one of the great American artists of the twentieth century. She was eminent among the second generation of postwar American abstract painters and is widely credited for 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 abstract painting. She produced a body of work whose impact on contemporary art has been profound and continues to grow. Frankenthaler’s distinguished and prolific career has been the subject of numerous monographic museum exhibitions, including major retrospectives at the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Our Midwestern friends may have seen her work at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art or the St. Louis Art Museum, as her work graces both permanent collections.
