Release Date: December 29, 2011

Helen Frankenthaler (1928–2011)

Helen Frankenthaler, American, 1928 - 2011, Mountains and Sea, 1952
oil and charcoal on canvas
86 5/8 x 117 1/4 inches
Collection Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc. (on extended loan to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, on view in the East Building Concourse Gallery EC 29H)
© 2011 Helen Frankenthaler / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Washington, DC—"Helen made groundbreaking contributions to the development of modern art in the United States. Pouring and brushing paint onto large swaths of canvas, she achieved an expansive lyricism that inspired many artists and yet remained uniquely her own. Her masterpiece, Mountains and Sea, has long been on view at the National Gallery of Art," said Earl A. Powell III, director, National Gallery of Art. "Also, the Gallery celebrated her distinctive experiments on paper in our 1993 exhibition Helen Frankenthaler: Prints."