From September 27 to January 26, 2025, Palazzo Strozzi hosts Helen Frankenthaler. Painting Without Rules, a major exhibition celebrating one of the most important women artists of the 20th century, whose revolutionary research in painting is explored through works from her oeuvre between 1953 and 2002, in dialogue with paintings and sculptures by her contemporaries, including Jackson Pollock, Morris Louis, Robert Motherwell, Mark Rothko, David Smith and Anne Truitt.
Helen Frankenthaler, “Moveable Blue”, 1973. Ph. @marcobadiani
Organized by the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi and the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation and curated by Douglas Dreishpoon, director of the Helen Frankenthaler Catalogue Raisonné, the exhibition focuses the artist’s innovative practice through the affinities, influences and friendships that defined her personal and creative life.
The project stands as one of the most important exhibitions ever dedicated to the artist in Europe and the most complete review of her work so far made in Italy, with loans from famous museums and international collections such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Tate Modern in London, the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the ASOM Collection and the Levett Collection.
With her innovative soak-stain technique, Frankenthaler left her mark on the evolution of modern painting in a new relationship between colour, space and form. The technique involved the application of thinned paint spread horizontally on untreated canvases, creating effects similar to those of watercolour, but on a large scale and with oil colors. Frankenthaler applied the paint with brushes or sponges, or directly from buckets, letting it expand and mix naturally, creating unique color interactions, marked by nuanced transitions and translucent overlays.
Helen Frankenthaler. Painting Without Rules celebrates an artist who challenged convention and pushed the boundaries of painting with a bold and intuitive vision that broke traditional norms. Frankenthaler stands out for her unique ability to combine abstraction and poetry, technique and imagination, control and improvisation, expanding her practice beyond the established canons, in search of a new freedom in painting.
“We are thrilled to present Helen Frankenthaler’s work in a major exhibition unprecedented in Italy, allowing the public to discover a fundamental artist of the twentieth century,” says Arturo Galansino, General Manager of the Palazzo Strozzi Foundation. “With her innovative research, Frankenthaler has distinguished herself as a pioneering figure in the field of abstract painting, expanding its potential in a way that continues to inspire new generations of artists today.”
“Helen Frankenthaler’s dedication to painting was enriched by her friendships with artists, some of whom became part of her extended family,” notes curator Douglas Dreishpoon. “Frankenthaler’s circle represented an ecosystem of creative forces in constant motion: observing their work in close connection allows us to better understand Frankenthaler’s own innovations.”
