Distillation 1973

Helen Frankenthaler made this beauty, Distillation, with paint on canvas. It seems to me that painting for Helen was like keeping a diary, where the emphasis is on the process and all the emotional detours that making art entails. I can imagine Helen staining the canvas, letting diluted paint soak into the fabric—a technique she pioneered. Check out how thin and washy the paint is, almost like watercolor! On the left, a stroke of vibrant yellow leans and curves, a cascade of light. It's so joyous. And then on the right, a vertical block of plum, acting like a full stop, balancing the composition. These shapes feel distilled, essential, like she's stripped away everything unnecessary to get to the core of color and form. Frankenthaler was in conversation with other abstract expressionist painters such as Jackson Pollock, and Mark Rothko. Like them, she expands painting’s possibilities.