The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao presents Helen Frankenthaler: Painting Without Rules, a retrospective exhibition celebrating one of the most groundbreaking women in American abstract art. A leading figure of Abstract Expressionism and Color Field painting, Frankenthaler (1928 -1911) revolutionized abstraction with her soak-stain technique, merging fluid color with spontaneous gesture.
Deeply connected to the New York art scene, she was at the heart of postwar artistic innovation, forging ties with figures like Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko. As the wife of Robert Motherwell, she was also immersed in the transatlantic dialogue between American and European modernism, drawing inspiration from Old Masters and 20th-century European abstraction. Her work reflects this cross-cultural influence, bridging artistic traditions while maintaining a distinctive, independent voice.
Curated by Douglas Dreishpoon and organized with the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi and the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, this exhibition showcases an artist who reshaped abstraction with boundless creativity.
HELEN FRANKENTHALER: PAINTING WITHOUT RULES
APRIL 11–SEPTEMBER 28, 2025
GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM BILBAO | BILBAO, SPAIN
On the cover: Helen Frankenthaler, Cassis, 1995 Acrylic on paper, 154.3 x 198.8 cm
Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, New York
© 2025 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./
Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VEGAP
Photo: Roz Akin, courtesy Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, New York
Source: Show On Show
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