Helen Frankenthaler and Rothko at BAMPFA

Helen Frankenthaler painted this painting inspired by her visit to the caves in Altimera, Spain.  The numbers 273 refer to Motherwell's apartment as they were lovers at the time...

So here is the painting and one by Rothko, which always draws me in,  in the current BAMPFA show, BERKELEY EYE.  These beckoned to me this past evening, when I went to PFA's showing of an Austrian film, in anticipation of their Austrian Film Series this fall, "In the Museum", about art and its spectators, in this instance, museum goers, but also a museum guard and a Canadian woman come to see a childhood friend who has asked her to come, as she is hospitalized and dying. The Brueghel room is particiularily interesting, as the "museum lecturer" talks about W.H. Auden's poems about Brueghel and how devoted he was to portraying humanity...and the vernacular life of peasants...showing how distracted they were by the major events, such as The Crucifixion.



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