ArtBreak: Film Screening: The Eye is the First Circle

This fall, Helen Frankenthaler’s large-scale painting Code Blue returns from New York, where it was included in the Gagosian exhibition Helen Frankenthaler: The Moment and the Distance. Celebrate the return of this beloved part of the KIA’s permanent collection with a screening of The Eye is the First Circle. Inspired by Mary Gabriel’s bestseller Ninth Street Women, this 2022 documentary centers the work of Frankenthaler and her female contemporaries — Grace Hartigan, Elaine de Kooning, Joan Mitchell, and Lee Krasner — who broke new ground in the field of Abstract Expressionism despite the marginalization they faced in mid-20th century America. The Eye is the First Circle was created by Schler Productions in partnership with PBS12 (Denver), and has a run time of 56 minutes.