Wales
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
acrylic on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 287.5 x 114.4 cm (113 3/16 x 45 1/16 in.) framed: 290.5 x 117.5 x 5.2 cm (114 3/8 x 46 1/4 x 2 1/16 in.)
Classification
Painting
Department
CMC
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Anonymous Gift
Accession Number
1981.86.1
Art Historical Context
Helen Frankenthaler's *Wales* (1966) stands as a commanding vertical acrylic painting, measuring over 11 feet tall by 3.5 feet wide, now housed in the National Gallery of Art thanks to an anonymous gift. Created during the artist's mature period, this work exemplifies her pivotal role in Color Field painting, a movement that emerged from Abstract Expressionism in the post-World War II era. Franker, often called a "poet of color," drew inspiration from landscapes—here evoked by the title referencing the rugged coasts of Wales—translating them into expansive, atmospheric fields of hue. The medi...
About the Artist
Helen Frankenthaler
Helen Frankenthaler (1928–2011) was born in New York City into a cultivated family; her father was a justice of the New York Supreme Court. She studied painting at the Dalton School under the Mexican muralist Rufino Tamayo and went on to Bennington College in Vermont, graduating in 1949. Returning to New York, she entered the circle of the Abstract Expressionist painters and studied with Hans Hofm...