Helen Frankenthaker
Born: New York City, USA 1928.
Helen Frankenthaker attended the Bennington College in Vermont in 1949 and later studied under abstract painting Hans Hoffman. In 1951, she discovered the work of Jackson Pollock. This led, in the early 1950s, to the development of her own Abstract Expressionist style known as "stain-soak." These large paintings involved the application of washes and stains to unprimed canvas and were produced on the floor. The results of this innovatory technique were a delicate and fluid merging of forms, which have an ambiguous and improvisational quality due to the unpredictable absorbency of the canvas. Her key work from this period, Mountains and seas (1952), influenced the stain paintings of Kenneth Noland and Morris Lavis. Black frame 1 is a later work that makes use of much stronger colour. Acrylic paint is used to create a sensuous and lyrical painting that seems to refer to seascape, while the overall effect is of a joyous, abstract composition, in which the artist's pleasure is revealed through the expressive brushstrokes. Helen Frankenthaker was married to fellow abstract expressionist Robert Motherwell from 1958 until 1971.
Masterpieces:
Black frame 1
Mountains and seas
Door.
text: The A-Z of Art, Nicola Hodge and Libby Anson.
Images: google images.