Helen Frankenthaler Mauve District Poster

Helen Frankenthaler was an American abstract expressionist painter who was a major contributor to the history of postwar American painting. This poster features a reproduction of Helen Frankenthaler’s 1966 painting Mauve District. an artwork in MoMA’s collection. The poster measures 31.5h x 27w.?

In 1969 Frankenthaler wrote of Mauve District. It relates to a theme which appears on-and-off. of pictures that often have one central vast shape. district. or territory; in this case. the shape itself (a square) is a play on the very shape of the canvas. The artist’s delight in spatial play is also evident in the wedge of exposed raw canvas. a common motif in her work.?

Although it is a negative space. it also conjures the edge of a tilted square??a form that can be perceived as either advancing or receding in relation to the mauve square it borders. I have always been concerned with painting that simultaneously insists on a flat surface and then denies it. Frankenthaler has said.