The Tamesis
The theme of the exhibition seems simple at first glance: really big paintings.
More specifically, paintings measuring at least 100 inches in one dimension or another (or both!) were created between 1960 and 1992 by Helen Frankenthaler, one of the greatest figures in the history of American abstract art.
But the 22 works in “Helen Frankenthaler: Moment and Distance,” which opened last week at Gagosian’s West 21st Street gallery in New York, are more than just grand in scale. They trace the artist’s personal and stylistic evolution over forty years, beginning a few years after she invented her famous “soak-stain” method, through a period of dreamy washes, heavier palettes and architectural surfaces.
“She was often quite experimental in her creative process,” said Elizabeth Smith, executive director of the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation. To highlight the effect of such experimentation, Gagosian’s show hangs in chronological order — the first time gallery director Jason Ysenburg has done so among the ten Frankenthaler shows he has organized over the years.
The earliest two works, Alassio (1960) and provincetown I (1961), each work is produced in oil paint and leaves a large area of raw canvas. They have the clearest connection to 1952 mountains and seaIt was her first painting to use the dip-staining technique of pouring diluted oil paint directly onto unprimed canvas, a method that influenced an entire generation of abstract painters and paved the way for the Color Field movement.
One of my favorite little quirks in the show is the stitching detail along the right edge Alassio. The original use of this fabric was most likely not for art – it might have been a bedspread or tablecloth. The painting may have begun while Frankenthaler was traveling in Italy with the Abstract Expressionist painter Robert Motherwell, to whom she was married from 1958 to 1971. She’s on the move and taking advantage of everything she can find.
Helen Frankenthaler, alsacio, 1960, oil on linen, 85 ¼ x 131 inches.© 2026 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Rob McKeever. Courtesy of Gagosian
There are other surprises for even the most dedicated Frankenthaler fans. “We wanted to create an ambitious exhibition that would showcase work that had never been seen before, showcasing works that are often hidden,” Isenberg said. Several of the paintings were rarely, if ever, exhibited to the public, as Frankenthaler kept many of her favorite paintings at home or in storage until her death in 2011 at the age of 83.
