In paintings such as Flood, Helen Frankenthaler used oil paint thinned to the consistency of watercolor to create large, curving expanses of variegated color through which the weave of the canvas remained visible. Like her contemporary Jackson Pollock, she placed her canvas directly on the floor and poured paint from above, largely without the aid of a brush. Frankenthaler utilized abstract forms as her painterly language, but she never entirely abandoned a commitment to representation…