Pittura/Panorama: Paintings by Helen Frankenthaler, 1952–1992

This book was published on the occasion of the exhibition Pittura/Panorama: Paintings by Helen Frankenthaler, 1952–1992 at the Museo di Palazzo Grimani in Venice, coinciding with Venice Biennale. Famous as the inventor of the “soak-stain” technique, Frankenthaler continued to create powerful, original abstractions throughout her lifetime. This volume focuses on a selection of paintings that reveal the relationship between the pittura (painting) and the panorama in her work over the course of four decades.

A preface by John Elderfield examines how the interplay between works that are reminiscent of easel paintings, though made on the floor, and large, horizontal canvases that open onto shallow but expansive spaces, as panoramas do, was intrinsic to Frankenthaler’s development. An essay by Pepe Karmel traces connections between what she called “the atmosphere of landscape” and inspirations ranging from sixteenth-century Venetian paintings to works by Lucio Fontana, as well as her influence on successors including Mary Weatherford.