Over the course of a painting career leading the Color Field painters and redefining Abstract Expressionism, Helen Frankenthaler manipulated line, color, and shape like no one else. The youngest daughter of a New York Supreme Court judge, she was an art world darling beginning in the late-1950s and continuing on for decades. Frankenthaler was often associated with her mentor and professor, Paul Feeley, whose own style was based in the Abstract tradition, and who also had a hand in sparking the young artist’s development in Color Field painting. She also ran in the circles of the art critic and essayist, Clement Greenberg, who helped introduce her to Jackson Pollock, Willem and Elaine de Kooning, and Franz Kline.
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In a grand, new, posthumous presentation of Frankenthaler’s work, soon showing at the Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills, viewers are exposed to an immersive walk through nearly three decades of the artist’s distinguished career, from 1962-1987. The exhibition of 18 canvases highlights the artistic choices Frankenthaler made during each point of her artistic arc.
Parade, 1965. Acrylic on canvas, 73 x 56 1/2 in.In a description from the gallery, Line into Color, Color into Line is a show that traces the evolution of Frankenthaler’s signature drip technique. Largely derived by chance, Frankenthaler was known for her technique of spilling paints onto unprimed canvases from an overhead position. The process was reminiscent of Pollock’s own drip method, which the contemporary artist emulated but also personalized by watering down her paint so that they appeared as washed out spreads more than solid overlays.
Barbizon, 1971. Acrylic markers, and crayon on canvas, 62 3/4 x 39 1/2 in.
Fittingly, her best-known painting, Mountains and Sea, is also the piece by which the Abstract artist established her signature drip technique. The particular visual work, currently on permanent view at the National Gallery of Art, marks a particularly exciting moment before Frankenthaler became a bonafide legend.Take in a few selections from the upcoming solo show, below:
Mornings, 1971. Acrylic and marker on canvas, 116 x 73 in.
Blue Bellows, 1976. Acrylic on canvas, 115 1/4 x 94 in.
Sentry, 1976. Acrylic on canvas, 114 x 90 in.
Grey Fireworks, 1982. Acrylic on canvas, 72 x 118 1/2 in.
Brother Angel, 1983. Acrylic on canvas, 66 1/2 x 117 in.
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