Small’s Paradise

Helen Frankenthaler, Small's Paradise, 1964, acrylic on canvas, 100 x 93 ⁵⁄₈ in. (254.0 x 237.7 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of George L. Erion, 1967.121

Artwork Details

Title: Small’s Paradise
Artist: Helen Frankenthaler
Date: 1964
Location: Not on view
Dimensions: 100 x 93 ⁵⁄₈ in. (254.0 x 237.7 cm.)
Credit Line: Gift of George L. Erion
Mediums: acrylic
Mediums Description: acrylic on canvas
Classifications: Painting
Subjects: Abstract
Object Number: 1967.121
Linked Open Data: https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1967.121

Artwork Description

Helen Frankenthaler's breakthrough as an abstract painter came when she discovered that paint thinned with turpentine and poured on raw canvas yielded rich colors and unexpected forms. Her titles were inspired by images that seemed "to come out of the pictures." When a shape that struck her as "Persian" emerged on this canvas, Frankenthaler thought of the word paradise--derived from pairi diz, Persian for a walled enclosure or garden. She had been to a New York City nightclub called Small's Paradise not long before, so when she put the associations together the painting became an emblem of a particular moment in her life.