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The Arts Intel Report

Helen Frankenthaler: Painting Without Rules

Helen Frankenthaler in her studio on East 83rd Street, in 1974.

Apr 11 – Sept 28, 2025
Abandoibarra Etorb., 2, 48009 Bilbo, Bizkaia, Spain

Helen Frankenthaler’s first professionally exhibited work—and her best known— was Mountains and Sea (1952), a soak-stain painting she completed after a road trip. Frankenthaler had traveled to Nova Scotia, and its rugged beauty stuck with her. She would go on to produce many more landscapes of feeling. This show in Bilbao places her powerful abstractions alongside works by her contemporaries. —Elena Clavarino

Photo: Alexander Liberman; ©J. Paul Getty Trust. Getty ResearchInstitute, Los Angeles (2000.R.19).Artwork © 2024 Helen FrankenthalerFoundation, Inc. / Artists Rights Society(ARS), New York