Wind Directions — Fine Art

Wind Directions - 1970 opens with a pale sheet marked by thin ribbons of colour drifting in different directions. The lines move across the surface like a turned compass with no fixed north.

Helen Frankenthaler built her soak stain paintings from thin washes that sink into the sheet. The thin ribbons read as marks rather than blocks, and the white around them stays open. The white frame gives the painted lines a clean border and keeps the pale sheet from fading into the plaster.

It keeps the washes settled and the board flat under a lamp. The fine art print shows the thin ribbons clearly where the wash is lightest. It hangs well above a desk near the printer, where the boards on the shelf frame the pale sheet on the right side.