Helen Frankenthaler at Kunstmuseum Basel
18 April to 23 August 2026

Of all the Colour Field artists, Helen Frankenthaler was arguably the most faithful to the movement. In the 1950s, she poured oil paint diluted with turpentine onto unprimed canvases so that it bled into feathery pools of varying intensity. The approach became known as the ‘soak-stain’ technique, and before long other Abstract Expressionists were adopting her method. Not that Frankenthaler was ever credited with the invention — this was the 1950s, and male artists dominated the discourse.