West Wind 1997

Helen Frankenthaler made this painting, West Wind, with acrylic on canvas. Imagine her in the studio. She’s spreading the paint out, letting it soak into the canvas. It’s all about color and gesture, right? A dance between control and accident. I can almost feel the cool breeze she was chasing – that push and pull of the wind. It’s like she’s painting a feeling more than a scene. There’s this big, watery blue section at the bottom, almost like a memory of a wave. The black marks? Maybe they are rocks, or maybe they’re just… marks. Frankenthaler always reminds me that painting doesn’t have to be about showing something. It can be about feeling something. She’s part of this amazing conversation between painters, all pushing each other to see what paint can really do.