News / Helen Frankenthaler / Museum Exhibitions

On View

Revolutions
Art from the Hirshhorn Collection, 1860–1960

Through April 20, 2025
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC
hirshhorn.si.edu

Revolutions is a major survey of 270 artworks by 126 artists from the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden’s permanent collection. Celebrating the museum’s fiftieth anniversary, the exhibition aims to capture the shifting cultural landscapes of a century defined by new currents in science and philosophy and ever-increasing mechanization. Shown alongside these historic works are contributions from nineteen contemporary artists whose practices demonstrate how many revolutionary ideas from a hundred years ago remain critical today. Work by Francis Bacon, Amoako Boafo, Alexander Calder, Willem de Kooning, Helen Frankenthaler, Rick Lowe, Sally Mann, Man Ray, Henry Moore, Pablo Picasso, Nathaniel Mary Quinn, and Cy Twombly is included.

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Helen Frankenthaler in
Aktion, Geste, Farbe: Künstlerinnen und Abstraktion weltweit 1940–70

December 2, 2023–March 3, 2024
Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Germany
kunsthalle-bielefeld.de

This exhibition, whose title translates to Action, Gesture, Paint: Women Artists and Global Abstraction 1940–70, brings together more than 150 paintings by an overlooked generation of eighty international women artists. The exhibition’s geographic breadth demonstrates that, while Abstract Expressionism is said to have begun in the United States, artists all over the world were exploring similar themes of materiality, freedom of expression, perception, and gesture in the postwar period. The exhibition originated at Whitechapel Gallery, London. Work by Helen Frankenthaler is included.

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The Inner Island

April 28–November 4, 2023
Fondation Carmignac, Porquerolles, France
www.fondationcarmignac.com

This exhibition, which features more than eighty works by fifty artists, presents visitors with new, unknown worlds floating outside familiar geographies and temporalities. The artists included break away from reality, bringing to life fictional, mental, and abstract islands. Work by Harold Ancart, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Alexander Calder, Helen Frankenthaler, Simon Hantaï, Roy Lichtenstein, Albert Oehlen, and Christopher Wool is included.

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Helen Frankenthaler in
Action, Gesture, Paint: Women Artists and Global Abstraction 1940–70

June 3–October 22, 2023
Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles, France
www.fondation-vincentvangogh-arles.org

Action, Gesture, Paint brings together more than 150 paintings by an overlooked generation of eighty international women artists. The exhibition’s geographic breadth demonstrates that, while Abstract Expressionism is said to have begun in the United States, artists all over the world were exploring similar themes of materiality, freedom of expression, perception, and gesture in the postwar period. This exhibition has traveled from Whitechapel Gallery, London. Work by Helen Frankenthaler is included.

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Helen Frankenthaler in
Creative Exchanges: Artists in Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner’s Address Books

May 4–July 30, 2023
Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center, East Hampton, New York
creativeexchanges.org

Three address books that belonged to Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner are on view together with more than thirty works by artists whose names, addresses, and telephone numbers appear in them. Work by Helen Frankenthaler is included.

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Helen Frankenthaler in
Action, Gesture, Paint: Women Artists and Global Abstraction 1940–1970

February 9–May 7, 2023
Whitechapel Gallery, London
www.whitechapelgallery.org

Action, Gesture, Paint brings together more than 150 paintings by an overlooked generation of eighty international women artists. The exhibition’s geographic breadth demonstrates that, while Abstract Expressionism is said to have begun in the United States, artists all over the world were exploring similar themes of materiality, freedom of expression, perception, and gesture in the postwar period. Work by Helen Frankenthaler is included.

Closed

Helen Frankenthaler and Jo Sandman
Without Limits

September 15, 2022–March 12, 2023
Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine
www.bowdoin.edu

Born three years apart, Helen Frankenthaler (1928–2011) and Jo Sandman (b. 1931) matured absorbing the lessons of Abstract Expressionism. In the early 1960s both artists expanded beyond their painting practices (though never abandoned them) to explore new modes of expression. Although they worked independently of one another, Frankenthaler and Sandman, as a pair, point toward new modes of conceptualizing art practice and the important role of printmaking in that revolution.

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Helen Frankenthaler
Malerische Konstellationen

December 2, 2022–March 5, 2023
Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany
www.museum-folkwang.de

This exhibition, whose title translates to Painterly Constellations, is the first monographic show of Helen Frankenthaler’s work in Germany in more than twenty years. It features seventy-five works on paper alongside a selection of paintings from distinct phases in Frankenthaler’s career. These range in size from intimate to monumental; some reference landscape, while others are resolutely abstract. This exhibition has traveled from Kunsthalle Krems, Krems an der Donau, Austria.

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Helen Frankenthaler
Late Works, 1990–2003

September 6, 2022–February 5, 2023
Baker Museum, Naples, Florida
artisnaples.org

Marking the first museum presentation exclusively dedicated to the late work of Helen Frankenthaler, this exhibition features ten paintings and twenty works on paper dating from 1990 to 2003, some measuring more than six feet in length. Through her invention of the soak-stain technique, Frankenthaler expanded the possibilities of abstract painting while referencing figuration and landscape in unique ways. In later years, her practice continued to evolve through her use of diverse media and processes, as she shifted from painting canvas on the floor to using larger sheets of paper laid out on the floor or on tabletops for easier accessibility. The continuity, in terms of content and execution between the late work (post-1990) and what came before it, is striking. Graced with memorable encounters, a vast art-historical image bank, and technical prowess, the aging artist moved in whatever direction suited her mood and imagination. This exhibition originated at the New Britain Museum of American Art in Connecticut.

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Ways of Freedom
Jackson Pollock to Maria Lassnig

October 15, 2022–January 22, 2023
Albertina Modern, Vienna
www.albertina.at

Ways of Freedom examines the creative interplay between Abstract Expressionism and Art Informel in a transatlantic exchange and dialogue from the mid-1940s to the end of the Cold War. Exploring radically impulsive approaches to form, color, and material, the exhibition includes more than ninety works by nearly fifty artists with loans from museums worldwide. This exhibition has traveled from the Museum Barberini in Potsdam, Germany under the title The Shape of Freedom: International Abstraction after 1945. Work by Willem de Kooning, Helen Frankenthaler, and Simon Hantaï is included.

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Monochrome Multitudes

September 22, 2022–January 8, 2023
Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago
smartmuseum.uchicago.edu

Revisiting classic modernist ideas about flatness, idealized form, and colors, this exhibition opens up the seemingly reductive format of the monochrome to reveal its global resonance and creative possibilities while working toward a more expansive narrative of twentieth and twenty-first century art. Work by Alexander Calder, Walter De Maria, Helen Frankenthaler, Theaster Gates, Frank Gehry, Sally Mann, and Richard Serra is included.

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Frisson
The Richard E. Lang and Jane Lang Davis Collection

October 15, 2021–November 27, 2022
Seattle Art Museum
www.seattleartmuseum.org

This exhibition celebrates the Friday Foundation’s gift of nineteen artworks from the Lang Collection to the Seattle Art Museum in honor of Seattle collectors Richard E. Lang and Jane Lang Davis. Dating from 1945 to 1976, the paintings, drawings, and sculptures in Frisson represent mature works and pivotal moments of artistic development from some of the most influential American and European artists of the postwar period. Work by Francis Bacon, Willem de Kooning, Helen Frankenthaler, and Alberto Giacometti is included.  

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Helen Frankenthaler
Malerische Konstellationen

April 23–October 30, 2022
Kunsthalle Krems, Krems an der Donau, Austria
www.kunsthalle.at

This exhibition, whose title translates to Painterly Constellations, is the first monographic show of Helen Frankenthaler’s work in Austria. It features seventy-four works on paper alongside a selection of paintings from distinct phases in Frankenthaler’s career. These range in size from intimate to monumental; some reference landscape, while others are resolutely abstract.

Closed

The Shape of Freedom
International Abstraction after 1945

June 4–September 25, 2022
Museum Barberini, Potsdam, Germany
www.museum-barberini.de

The Shape of Freedom examines the creative interplay between Abstract Expressionism and Art Informel in transatlantic exchange and dialogue, from the mid-1940s to the end of the Cold War. Exploring radically impulsive approaches to form, color, and material, the exhibition includes more than ninety works by nearly fifty artists with loans from museums worldwide. Work by Willem de Kooning, Helen Frankenthaler, and Simon Hantaï is included.

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America. Entre rêves et réalités
La collection du Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Collection

June 9–September 11, 2022
Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Canada
www.mnbaq.org

Featuring more than a hundred paintings, photographs, sculptures, and video works drawn from the permanent collection of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC, this exhibition, whose title translates to America. Between Dreams and Realities, offers a broad overview of modern and contemporary American art. Organized thematically, it looks carefully and critically at the notion of the American dream and uncovers how artists have variously grappled with questions of identity, the challenges of globalization, the realities of everyday life in America, and the complexities of its technological and political revolutions. Work by Alexander Calder, Willem de Kooning, Helen Frankenthaler, Sally Mann, Man Ray, Brice Marden, Nam June Paik, Ed Ruscha, Andy Warhol, and Mary Weatherford is included.

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Helen Frankenthaler
Radical Beauty

September 15, 2021–April 18, 2022
Dulwich Picture Gallery, London
www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk

Radical Beauty presents Helen Frankenthaler’s groundbreaking woodcuts, which appear painterly and spontaneous with expanses of color and fluid forms. The exhibition reveals Frankenthaler as a trailblazer of the mid-century printmaking renaissance among American abstract artists, endlessly pushing the possibilities of the medium through experimentation. Highlights of the exhibition include East and Beyond (1973), created by printing onto multiple blocks to avoid negative space, and Cameo (1980), in which Frankenthaler introduced a new layered approach to color using her “guzzying” technique, where she worked surfaces with sandpaper and dental tools to achieve different effects.

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Helen Frankenthaler
Late Works, 1990–2003

October 14, 2021–February 27, 2022
Palm Springs Art Museum, California
www.psmuseum.org

Marking the first museum presentation dedicated to the late work of Helen Frankenthaler, this exhibition features ten paintings and twenty works on paper dating from 1990 to 2003, some measuring more than six feet. Through her invention of the soak-stain technique, Frankenthaler expanded the possibilities of abstract painting while referencing figuration and landscape in unique ways. In later years, her practice continued to evolve through her use of diverse media and processes, as she shifted from painting canvas on the floor to using larger sheets of paper that were laid out on the floor or on tabletops for easier accessibility. The continuity, in terms of content and execution, between the late work (post-1990) and what came before is striking. Graced with memorable encounters, a vast art historical image bank, and technical prowess, the aging artist moved in whatever direction suited her mood and imagination. This exhibition originated at the New Britain Museum of American Art in Connecticut.

Closed

Without Limits
Helen Frankenthaler, Abstraction, and the Language of Print

September 4, 2021–February 20, 2022
Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas at Austin
blantonmuseum.org

Without Limits celebrates the generous gift from the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation to the Blanton Museum of Art of ten prints and six proofs that span five decades of the artist’s career. Frankenthaler began creating prints in 1961, approaching lithography, screen printing, etching, and woodcut printing with curiosity and vision. Collaborating with master printmakers at studios such as Universal Limited Art Editions (ulae), Mixografia, and Tyler Graphics, Ltd., she contributed to a printmaking renaissance in the mid-twentieth century. Her work is presented alongside prints by other artists in the Blanton’s collection who also use the medium to capture and translate their own abstract visions.

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In the Studio: Room 8
Helen Frankenthaler

November 15, 2019–November 28, 2021
Tate Modern, London
www.tate.org.uk

Tate Modern presents five works by Helen Frankenthaler, ranging in date from 1951 to 1977. Four of the works are on loan from the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, New York, and the fifth was recently gifted to the Tate by the Foundation. The display marks the artist’s first extensive museum presentation of paintings in London since 1969.

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Helen Frankenthaler in
Women Take the Floor

September 13, 2019–November 28, 2021
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
www.mfa.org

Women Take the Floor challenges the dominant history of twentieth-century American art by focusing on the overlooked and underrepresented work and stories of women artists. With more than two hundred works drawn primarily from the museum’s collection, the exhibition is organized into seven thematic galleries. Work by Helen Frankenthaler is included.

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Helen Frankenthaler
Late Works, 1990–2003

June 12–August 28, 2021
Weatherspoon Art Museum, University of North Carolina, Greensboro
weatherspoonart.org

Marking the first museum presentation dedicated to the late work of Helen Frankenthaler, this exhibition features twenty-two works on paper dating from 1990 to 2003, some measuring more than six feet. Through her invention of the soak-stain technique, Frankenthaler expanded the possibilities of abstract painting while referencing figuration and landscape in unique ways. In later years, her practice continued to evolve through her use of diverse media and processes, as she shifted from painting canvas on the floor to using larger sheets of paper that were laid out on the floor or on tabletops for easier accessibility. The continuity, in terms of content and execution, between the late work (post-1990) and what came before is striking. Graced with memorable encounters, a vast art historical image bank, and technical prowess, the aging artist moved in whatever direction suited her mood and imagination. This exhibition has traveled from the New Britain Museum of American Art in Connecticut.

Closed

Helen Frankenthaler in
Women in Abstraction

May 19–August 23, 2021
Centre Pompidou, Paris
www.centrepompidou.fr

Setting out to trace a lesser-told history of art by focusing on the contributions of women artists to abstraction, this exhibition features more than five hundred works dating from the 1860s to the 1980s. The multidisciplinary and global curatorial approach includes painting, sculpture, dance, applied arts, photography, film, and performance art from Latin America, the Middle East, Asia, Europe, and the United States in order to tell a complex story with many voices. Work by Helen Frankenthaler is included.

Closed

Helen Frankenthaler
Late Works, 1990–2003

February 11–May 23, 2021
New Britain Museum of American Art, Connecticut
nbmaa.org

Marking the first museum presentation dedicated to the late work of Helen Frankenthaler, this exhibition features twenty-two works on paper dating from 1990 to 2003, some measuring more than six feet. Through her invention of the soak-stain technique, Frankenthaler expanded the possibilities of abstract painting while referencing figuration and landscape in unique ways. In later years, her practice continued to evolve through her use of diverse media and processes, as she shifted from painting canvas on the floor to using larger sheets of paper that were laid out on the floor or on tabletops for easier accessibility. The continuity, in terms of content and execution, between the late work (post-1990) and what came before is striking. Graced with memorable encounters, a vast art historical image bank, and technical prowess, the aging artist moved in whatever direction suited her mood and imagination.

Closed

Helen Frankenthaler in
Out of Place: A Feminist Look at the Collection

January 24–September 13, 2020
Brooklyn Museum, New York
www.brooklynmuseum.org

Out of Place presents the work of forty-four artists whose practices engender a broader and more dynamic view of modern and contemporary art. By featuring works that have routinely been regarded as “out of place” in major museums, the exhibition examines how artists can transform long-held cultural assumptions. Work by Helen Frankenthaler is included.