Helen Frankenthaler

André Emmerich Gallery Inc., New York
Acquired by the present owner from the above in April 1969

This work is in very good condition overall. There are areas of staining to the unprimed canvas, visible in the catlogue illustration. The staining is primarily concentrated to the left corner and the right edge. This work has recently benefited from a light topical cleaning by Amann + Estabrook Associates. Under ultraviolet light inspection there is no evidence of restoration. Framed.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

"I am involved in making pictures 'hold' an explosive gesture, something that is moving in and out of landscape like depths but lies flat in local area – intact but not confined."

Helen Frankenthaler, 1957

Emanating through diaphanous veils of celestial color drenched into the unprimed canvas, Tuscany, reconciles Helen Frankenthaler's defiant aesthetic proposition with precision. Typical of the artist's most accomplished work, Tuscany engages ideals of abstraction to invoke concepts of place and time, exploring the unlimited space between imagination and memory with the act of painting.

Advancing her idiosyncratic oil stain technique, here the artist has fully saturated pigments with turpentine before soaking the liquid paint into the canvas, resulting in stains of color surrounded by haloes of colorless oil. The cerulean hues accented by the amber earth tones, undoubtedly attest to her 1963 summer stay in Provincetown, as well as the eponymous title recalling her travels to Italy with then husband Robert Motherwell. At the same time, there is evidence of rhythmic brushwork invested into the surface with a poetic dynamism and, in the best traditions of Abstract Expressionism, attests to the hand of the artist and the act of creation. The composition is a conscious exploration of abstraction where she fills the center of the canvas with an enthralling sense of painterly vitality.

Another principal feature of Tuscany is its monumental scale, which engages and absorbs the viewer so we are lost in its inviting world of color and form. Indeed, this painting embodies Frank O'Hara's statement that "Frankenthaler is a daring painter. She is willing to employ huge formats so that essentially intimate revelations may be more fully explored and delineated...She has the ability to let a painting be beautiful, or graceful, or sullen and perfunctory, if these qualities are part of the force and clarity of the occasion," (New York, Jewish Museum, An Exhibition of Oil Paintings by Frankenthaler, 1960, p. 7).