Nature Abhors a Vacuum

New York-born Helen Frankenthaler is considered one of America’s most important modern artists. An early abstract expressionist, she was a pioneer in the development of color-field painting, whose second generation was inspired by her technique of allowing paint to soak directly into the canvas, as introduced in her seminal 1952 painting Mountains and Sea. In addition to her paintings, Frankenthaler also produced welded-steel sculptures, ceramics, prints, and illustrated books. Numerous solo exhibitions of her work included retrospectives at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (1989) and the Guggenheim Museum, New York (1998).