Dream Walk 1977

This is 'Dream Walk' by Helen Frankenthaler, and looking at it, I imagine her in the studio, moving colors around, making this world in pinks and purples. It feels like walking through a dream, doesn't it? These colors are really doing something. See how she lets the paint soak into the canvas? It’s so thin in places, almost like watercolor. There’s something so delicate and tender in the way she handles it, allowing the material to express itself. Those thin lines of red and yellow feel like afterthoughts, or like she's drawn right on top of the color, but they're actually crucial, adding a tiny bit of tension in the painting and creating a contrast to the softer colors. There’s an ongoing conversation and exchange of ideas across time, and she's definitely responding to something here; this feels connected to the Color Field painters. Anyway, this is how painting embraces ambiguity, leaving space for new interpretations and meaning.