Helen Frankenthaler’s wild and anarchic painting at Palazzo Strozzi
More than just an artist, Helen Frankenthaler was an alchemist. She mixed abstraction and poetry, technique and imagination, control and improvisation in the vessel of her boundless creativity, expanding her practice beyond conventions, beyond rules, in search of the perfect formula for freedom in painting. The Palazzo Strozzi Foundation, together with the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, has dedicated a tribute exhibition to her, showcasing her revolutionary approach to painting with a series of works created between 1953 and 2002. These works are characterized by a rain of chromatic interactions, soft transitions, and translucent overlaps.
More than a monographic exhibition, it is a bold happening where Helen’s works, dominated by a perfect balance between color, space, and form, engage in a dialogue with other stars such as Jackson Pollock, Robert Motherwell, Kenneth Noland, Mark Rothko, and Anthony Caro.
To launch “Helen Frankenthaler. Painting Without Rules,” one of the most anticipated exhibitions of 2024, the crème de la crème of national and international art and culture gathered in Florence the other night. At the exclusive dinner, in addition to Arturo Galansino, General Director of the Palazzo Strozzi Foundation, among the attendees were Sara Funaro, Mayor of Florence, Douglas Dreishpoon, Director of the Helen Frankenthaler Catalogue Raisonné and curator of the exhibition, Francesco Bonami, Elizabeth Smith, Jeff Goldblum, Maria Manetti Shrem, Lise Motherwell, Eva Cavalli, Mario Calvo Platero, Amanda Platek and Lamberto Frescobaldi.
Text: Germano D’Acquisto
Photos: Ludovica Arcero
