Helen Frankenthaler: Something new in terms of nature

Abstract

Originally presented as a talk at Turner Contemporary Margate in 2014 in association with the exhibition Making Painting: Helen Frankenthaler and JMW Turner , the article explores the importance of Helen Frankenthaler’s exposure to the work of Paul Cézanne in exhibitions in New York in the early 1950s for the making of her breakthrough painting Mountains and Sea in 1952 and speculates about her engagement with the work of Nicolas Poussin in her painting Eden (1956).