Frankenthaler moves Jenny Brosinski, Ina Gerken, Adrian Schiess

In 2025, the Museum Reinhard Ernst focusses entirely on Helen Frankenthaler. For the exhibition Frankenthaler Moves, three contemporary artists have been commissioned to create works engaging with the paintings by Frankenthaler. Previously unseen works by the latter from the Reinhard Ernst Collection will enter into a dynamic exchange with the three contemporary positions. Throughout all exhibition galleries, Frankenthaler remains a central point of reference—whether through formal correspondences, thematic connections, or direct juxtapositions. In one section of the exhibition, all four artists encounter one another in a shared field of tension.

Jenny Brosinski (*1984, Berlin) responds to the visual tradition of Abstract Expressionism through a radical formal reduction on large-scale paintings. Like Frankenthaler, she works on unprimed canvas. Her spontaneous, raw approach gives rise to a lightness and openness that redefines the expressive gesture.

Ina Gerken (*1987, Düsseldorf) creates works with finely tuned layers of colour that evoke atmospheric landscapes. During her residency at the Frankenthaler House at the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture in Maine (USA), Gerken immersed herself in Frankenthaler’s painterly process—an influence that resonates in her sensitive approach to colour and composition.

Adrian Schiess (*1959, Le Locle/Zurich) presents iridescent, colour-intensive floor panels, its smooth surfaces challenging the boundaries of the classical painting format. His method, which forgoes personal signature, connects with Frankenthaler’s open painting processes and expands them into the spatial realm.

The exhibition powerfully illustrates how Frankenthaler’s pioneering work continues to resonate today—as inspiration, contrast, or conceptual point of departure for contemporary artistic explorations.