Pranzo Italiano 1973

Helen Frankenthaler created Pranzo Italiano, meaning Italian Lunch, as a color lithograph in 1978. Frankenthaler, born into a wealthy, progressive, Jewish family in New York, engaged with art as a means of exploring personal and aesthetic freedom. In this piece, we see a departure from traditional landscape. It’s a move toward abstraction, which was her signature style. How does one represent the experience of an Italian lunch? Not through a table set with food, but with a wash of warm colors that evoke the languid feeling of a midday meal in Italy. Frankenthaler, working in a male-dominated art world, challenged conventional artistic practices, to explore new forms of expression. She once said: "There are no rules. That is how art is born, how breakthroughs happen. Go against the rules or ignore the rules. That is what invention is about." Through her distinctive approach to color and form, Frankenthaler invites us to consider the emotional and sensory dimensions of our own experiences.