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Small's Paradise

Smithsonian American Art Museum and its Renwick Gallery
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Object Details

Artist
Helen Frankenthaler, born New York City 1928-died Darien, CT 2011
Gallery Label
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.
Credit Line
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of George L. Erion
1964
Object number
1967.121
Restrictions & Rights
Usage conditions apply
Type
Painting
Medium
acrylic on canvas
Dimensions
100 x 93 5/8 in. (254.0 x 237.7 cm.)
See more items in
Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection
Department
Painting and Sculpture
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Topic
Abstract
Record ID
saam_1967.121
Metadata Usage (text)
Not determined
GUID (Link to Original Record)
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/vk79f5bafab-27f8-4982-8680-29c10bd48aa0

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There are restrictions for re-using this image. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page .
International media Interoperability Framework
IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. Visit the IIIF page to learn more.
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