Helen Frankenthaler Events & Exhibitions: 2024 & Beyond

Join us as we explore the essential Helen Frankenthaler exhibitions of 2024 and beyond, spotlighting key venues and featured works that celebrate her innovative techniques and lasting impact on abstract art. Whether you're a longtime admirer or encountering her work for the first time, these exhibitions offer a compelling journey through the creativity and innovation of one of the 20th century's most influential modern artists.

Location: Gagosian, Rome, Italy

Dates: September, 2024 - November 23, 2024

Description: Helen Frankenthaler: Painting on Paper, 1990–2002 features eighteen large-scale paintings from the later part of Frankenthaler’s career, many of which have never been exhibited before. This collection highlights her shift toward working primarily on paper during her final decade, a medium that allowed her to explore new chromatic juxtapositions and painterly techniques. Known for pioneering the soak-stain technique, Frankenthaler adapted her approach in these works, applying denser brushstrokes and pigments while transitioning from painting on the floor to working on waist-high tabletops. The exhibition offers a vivid display of her evolving methods, with pieces inspired by her time in the American Southwest and her later years living on the Connecticut shore. Accompanying this show is a fully illustrated catalogue, along with a concurrent exhibition at Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, celebrating her legacy alongside works from her contemporaries.

Location: Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, Italy

Dates: September, 2024 - January 26, 2025

Description: Palazzo Strozzi is hosting the most comprehensive retrospective of Helen Frankenthaler ever presented in Italy, offering an in-depth exploration of her groundbreaking contributions to 20th-century art. Helen Frankenthaler: Painting Without Rules showcases her evolution from Abstract Expressionism to Color Field painting, highlighting her revolutionary soak-stain technique, which transformed how colour interacts with space and form. The exhibition places her works in dialogue with contemporaries including Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko, underscoring her influence and the synergies among these artistic giants. Spanning from the 1950s to the early 2000s, the exhibition includes large canvases, works on paper, and sculptures, with significant loans from the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation and renowned museums worldwide.

Location: Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, USA

Dates: March, 2024 - April 20, 2025

Description: To mark its 50th anniversary, the Hirshhorn presents Revolutions: Art from the Hirshhorn Collection, 1860–1960, a sweeping exhibition that spans a century of groundbreaking artistic innovation. The show features 270 works by 126 artists, including icons such as Helen Frankenthaler, Francis Bacon, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Pablo Picasso. The exhibition highlights the dynamic shifts in science, philosophy, and mechanisation that fueled movements like Modernism and Abstraction, while also including contributions from 19 contemporary artists whose practices reveal the enduring relevance of these revolutionary ideas. Curated by Marina Isgro and Betsy Johnson, Revolutions connects the past with the present, celebrating the Hirshhorn's world-renowned collection of postwar American and European art.