Regatta illustrates Helen Frankenthaler’s bold and powerful ambition to forge a new artistic path in distinction to her predominantly male colleagues. Like many of her paintings, Regatta makes reference to the sea in both its title and colour scheme. John Elderfield noted that it was ‘impossible to look at any of Frankenthaler’s paintings, regardless of their nominal subjects, without thinking of the aqueous and liquid, and sometimes of the oceanic or marine.’ [1]. Frankenthaler’s equally free and controlled use of colour continues to fascinate today.
Helen Frankenthaler (1928–2011)
Regatta, 1986
Currently exhibited: Yes (Gallery: Painting as a Home)
Material: Acrylic paint on canvas
Size: 97.2 x 161.6 cm
Inv-Nr.: B_379
Image rights: VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn; Copyright: Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, New York
Keywords:
Previous owner: John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco; Dr. Benjamin and Dr. Gloria Engel Collection, 1989
Acquisition: Reinhard Ernst Collection, Christie’s, New York, 2017
Regatta illustrates Helen Frankenthaler’s bold and powerful ambition to forge a new artistic path in distinction to her predominantly male colleagues. In 1987, referring to a group of paintings she had just completed, she said, ‘Color alone makes no sense. Drawing alone makes no sense. A picture needs both space and light to make magic.’ [1]
Frankenthaler combines her soak-stain technique with the painterly line in the deep blue of the painting. The artists makes reference to the sea in both its title and colour scheme with Regatta. Curator John Elderfield noted that it was ‘impossible to look at any of Frankenthaler’s paintings, regardless of their nominal subjects, without thinking of the aqueous and liquid, and sometimes of the oceanic or marine.’ [2]. Frankenthaler’s equally free and controlled use of colour continues to amaze to this day.
[1] Helen Frankenthaler, typed statement, 25.9.1987, Helen Frankenthaler Foundation Archives, New York, quoted in Douglas Dreishpoon: ‘Drawing to paint’, in: Malerische Konstellationen, exh. cat. Kunsthalle Krems, Museum Folkwang Essen, Cologne 2022, p. 169.
[2] John Elderfield: Helen Frankenthaler. Sea Change: A Decade of Paintings, 1974–1983, exh. cat. Gagosian Gallery, Rome 2019, p. 4.
