A Significant Acquisition

The Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA) has acquired a sizable new painting: Sacrifice Decision by Helen Frankenthaler (1928-2011). The painting is the fourth work by the artist to have a home in WCMA’s permanent collection.

The museum’s previous Frankenthaler acquisitions, smaller works on paper, date from the 1960s and ’70s. Sacrifice Decision, at nearly 4-and a-half feet tall and 10 feet wide, is painted on canvas and was completed in 1981. It’s a “major canvas” that will be “a centerpiece of the new galleries in WCMA’s future home,” says Pamela Franks, the museum’s Class of 1956 Director. “This extraordinary painting is mesmerizing and really rewards prolonged engagement.”

Frankenthaler, who was an artist-in-residence at Williams during the 1979-80 academic year, is considered one of the most innovative artists of the postwar generation. She was instrumental in the art world’s transition from abstract expressionism to color field painting.

In Sacrifice Decision, thick clusters of opaque paint layered over thin washes of transparent paint showcase the artist’s affinity for creating a sense of depth through visual projection and recession. John Elderfield, former curator at New York’s Museum of Modern Art and Frankenthaler’s biographer, considers the piece the pivotal painting for her work in the 1980s.

The acquisition was possible thanks to Liz Ellrodt ’83 and Scott Schweighauser ’83. As an art history major at Williams, Ellrodt says she learned “how to ‘see’ things in the best liberal arts tradition. The opportunity to fund the acquisition of a significant painting that not only fills a gap in the collection and generates new opportunities for teaching but could also inspire future students to leave Williams with the same gift of learning how to see is such a privilege.”

Image credit:

Helen Frankenthaler
Sacrifice Decision, 1981
Acrylic on canvas
53 3/4 × 118 1/2 in. (136.5 × 301 cm)