Helen Frankenthaler

With her retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Helen Frankenthaler was already regarded as one of the most important American artists of her time two years before creating The Road to Messina. Eugene C. Goossen organised the 1969 exhibition, which presented 46 works from 1951 to 1968. Forty-two works from 1952 to 1968 also travelled to London, Hanover and Berlin, receiving high praise from critics. A major survey exhibition of this kind often impacts an artist’s creative process, and it seems that Frankenthaler reflected on her past development, considering how to progress from there. While previously she had often allowed colour to flow freely, she now shaped the composition through the layering of individual tones.
In The Road to Messina, she superimposes pure, dense colours, creating a majestic effect and contrasting them with intentional lines at the centre of the painting. The earthy, intense palette reflects Frankenthaler’s extensive travels through Europe and Morocco in the spring of 1970.

Helen Frankenthaler (1928–2011)

The Road to Messina, 1971

Currently exhibited: Yes (Helen Frankenthaler: Move and Make)

Material: Acrylic paint on canvas
Size: 268.1 x 159 cm
Inv-Nr.: B_340
Image rights: VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn; Copyright: Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, New York

Keywords:

• Abstract Expressionism
• Color field painting
• Soak-stain-technique