Desert Pass

Helen Frankenthaler, Desert Pass, 1976, acrylic on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Edith S. and Arthur J. Levin, 2005.5.32
Copied Helen Frankenthaler, Desert Pass, 1976, acrylic on canvas, 38 1⁄4 x 53 3⁄4 in. (97.2 x 136.5 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Edith S. and Arthur J. Levin, 2005.5.32

Artwork Details

Title
Desert Pass
Artist
Date
1976
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
38 1⁄4 x 53 3⁄4 in. (97.2 x 136.5 cm)
Credit Line
Bequest of Edith S. and Arthur J. Levin
Mediums
Mediums Description
acrylic on canvas
Classifications
Subjects
  • Abstract
  • Landscape — desert
Object Number
2005.5.32
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/2005.5.32

Artwork Description

The warm brown and sandy yellow tones of Desert Pass evoke a sense of the southwest that Frankenthaler experienced on her first trip to Arizona. Although she denied that there are identifiable references to the natural world in this and other abstractions, she acknowledged that “paintings echo, in varying degrees, one’s inner psychic surroundings as well as outside orbits.” Desert Pass can be understood as a mindscape, an image in which a creative individual assimilates the world around her.


Modern Masters: Midcentury Abstraction from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2008