Helen Frankenthaler
Helen Frankenthaler was an American abstract expressionist painter. She was a major contributor to the history of postwar American painting. Having exhibited her work for over six decades, she spanned several generations of abstract painters while continuing to produce vital and ever-changing new work. Frankenthaler began exhibiting her large-scale abstract expressionist paintings in contemporary museums and galleries in the early 1950s. She was included in the 1964 Post-Painterly Abstraction exhibition curated by Clement Greenberg that introduced a newer generation of abstract painting that came to be known as color field. Born in Manhattan, she was influenced by Greenberg, Hans Hofmann, and Jackson Pollock's paintings. Her work has been the subject of several retrospective exhibitions, including a 1989 retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and been exhibited worldwide since the 1950s. In 2001, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts.
Frankenthaler had a home and studio in Darien, Connecticut.
Early life and education
Helen Frankenthaler was born on December 12, 1928, in New York City. Her father was Alfred Frankenthaler, a New York State Supreme Court judge. Her mother, Martha, had emigrated with her family from Germany to the United States as an infant. Helen's two sisters, Marjorie and Gloria, were six and five years older, respectively. Growing up on Manhattan's Upper East Side, Frankenthaler absorbed the privileged background of a cultured and progressive Jewish intellectual family that encouraged all three daughters to prepare themselves for professional careers. Her nephew is the artist/photographer Clifford Ross.Frankenthaler studied at the Dalton School under muralist Rufino Tamayo and also at Bennington College in Vermont. While at Bennington, Frankenthaler studied under the direction of Paul Feeley, who is credited with helping her understand pictorial composition, as well as influencing her early cubist-derived style. Upon her graduation in 1949, she studied privately with Australian-born painter Wallace Harrison, and with Hans Hofmann in 1950. She met Clement Greenberg in 1950 and had a five-year relationship with him. She married the painter Robert Motherwell in 1958; the couple divorced in 1971. Both born of wealthy parents, they were known as "the golden couple" and for their lavish entertaining. She gained two stepdaughters from him, Jeannie Motherwell and Lise Motherwell. Jeannie Motherwell studied painting at Bard College and the Art Students League in New York and had several exhibits.
In 1994, Frankenthaler married Stephen M. DuBrul, Jr., an investment banker who served the Gerald Ford administration.
Style and technique
Active as a painter for nearly six decades, Frankenthaler passed through many phases and stylistic shifts. Initially associated with abstract expressionism because of her focus on forms latent in nature, Frankenthaler is identified with the use of fluid shapes, abstract masses, and lyrical gestures. She made use of large formats on which she painted, generally, simplified abstract compositions. Her style is notable in its emphasis on spontaneity; as Frankenthaler herself stated, "A really good picture looks as if it's happened at once."Frankenthaler often painted onto unprimed canvas with oil paints that she heavily diluted with turpentine, a technique that she named "soak stain". This allowed for the colors to soak directly into the canvas, creating a liquefied, translucent effect that strongly resembled watercolor. Soak stain was also said to be the ultimate fusing of image and canvas, drawing attention to the flatness of the painting itself. The major disadvantage of this method, however, is that the oil in the paints will eventually cause the canvas to discolor and rot away. The technique was adopted by other artists, notably Morris Louis and Kenneth Noland, and launched the second generation of the color field school of painting. Frankenthaler often worked by laying her canvas out on the floor, a technique inspired by Jackson Pollock.
Frankenthaler preferred to paint in privacy. If assistants were present, she preferred them to be inconspicuous when not needed.
Influences
One of her most important influences was Clement Greenberg, an art and literary critic with whom she had a personal friendship and who included her in the Post-Painterly Abstraction exhibition that he curated in 1964. Through Greenberg she was introduced to the New York art scene. Under his guidance she spent the summer of 1950 studying with Hans Hofmann, catalyst of the Abstract Expressionist movement.The first Jackson Pollock show Frankenthaler saw was at the Betty Parsons Gallery in 1950. She had this to say about seeing Pollock's paintings Autumn Rhythm, Number 30, 1950, Number One,1950 :
It was all there. I wanted to live in this land. I had to live there, and master the language.
Some of her thoughts on painting:
John Elderfield wrote that the watercolors of Paul Cézanne and John Marin were important early influences:
Work
Paintings
Frankenthaler's official artistic career as a painter was launched in 1952 with the exhibition of Mountains and Sea. Throughout the 1950s, her works tended to be centered compositions. In 1957, Frankenthaler began to experiment with linear shapes and more organic, sun-like, rounded forms.In the 1960s, her style shifted towards the exploration of symmetrical paintings, as she began to place strips of colors near the edges of her paintings. Her style grew to be more simplified. She began to make use of single stains and blots of solid color against white backgrounds, often in the form of geometric shapes. In 1960, the term color field painting was used to describe the work of Frankenthaler. In general, this term refers to the application of large areas, or fields, of color to the canvas. This style was characterized by the use of hues that were similar in tone or intensity, as well as large formats and simplified compositions, all of which are qualities descriptive of Frankenthaler's work from the 1960s onward. The color field artists differed from abstract expressionists in their attempted erasure of emotional, mythic, and religious content. Beginning in 1963, Frankenthaler began to use acrylic paints rather than oil paints because they allowed for both opacity and sharpness when put on the canvas.
By the 1970s, she had done away with the soak stain technique entirely, preferring thicker paint that allowed her to employ bright colors almost reminiscent of Fauvism. Throughout the 1970s, Frankenthaler explored the joining of areas of the canvas through the use of modulated hues, and experimented with large, abstract forms.
Her work in the 1980s was characterized as much calmer, with its use of muted colors and relaxed brushwork. "Once one's true talent begins to emerge, one is freer in a way but less free in another way, since one is a captive of this necessity and deep urge".
Works on paper
While she is best known for her large-scale canvases, her works on paper constitute a significant and dynamic aspect of her oeuvre. These works, spanning drawings, watercolors, gouaches, and prints, reveal her innovative approach to color, form, and medium, offering intimate insights into her creative process. Frankenthaler's works on paper are not mere preparatory studies but stand as fully realized expressions of her artistic vision, showcasing her mastery of fluidity, transparency, and improvisation.Frankenthaler's engagement with paper began in her youth and continued through her studies at Bennington College. Her early drawings from the 1940s, often executed in charcoal, ink, or pastel, display a lyrical abstraction with fluid lines and organic forms. These works reflect her exploration of automatism and her interest in artists like Arshile Gorky and Joan Miró.
By the 1950s, Frankenthaler began experimenting with watercolor and gouache, mediums that allowed her to explore the translucency and spontaneity that would define her mature style. Her invention of the soak-stain technique in 1952 had a profound impact on her works on paper. She adapted this method to paper, pouring diluted paint onto unprimed surfaces, allowing colors to bleed and merge.
During the 1960s, Frankenthaler's works on paper became increasingly ambitious, paralleling the scale and complexity of her canvases. She embraced a variety of techniques, including acrylic, watercolor, and ink, often combining them in single compositions. Her paper works from this period, exhibit bold color fields and gestural marks, with a balance of control and spontaneity.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Frankenthaler's works on paper grew more diverse and experimental, incorporating collage elements, stencils, and mixed media. These works highlight her willingness to push the boundaries of the medium, treating paper as a space for both delicate nuance and robust experimentation.
In the later 1980s, Frankenthaler's works on paper became more immediate. With this immediacy she allowed and welcomed the risk of imperfection more so than with her painting. This became a means of discovery that introduced new energy into all aspects of her art. Her From the Turret series of works on paper were inspired by the view from the turret of her Connecticut studio. The stormy landscape in From the Turret IX was painted with immediacy and evokes a blue sea with a cloudy and windy sky.
In her later years, Frankenthaler's works on paper retained their vitality while adopting a more introspective tone. Her watercolors and acrylics from the 1990s, feature color washes and subtle gradients, evoking landscapes or emotional states.
Frankenthaler's late works on paper often blur the line between drawing and painting, as seen in her use of colored pencils and crayons alongside fluid washes. These pieces convey a sense of intimacy and directness, reflecting her lifelong commitment to exploring the expressive potential of her materials.