Helen Franenthaler-the artist
Conclusion
- painter/printmaker
- influential artist of twentieth century
- influenced by Abstract Expressionists painting practices
- develops her own style, "soak stain" technique which leads to Color Field Painting.
"What concerns me when I work, is not whether the picture is a landscape, or whether it's pastoral, or whether somebody will see a sunset in it. What concerns me is - did I make a beautiful picture?"
You Tube Video Below:
(if this link doesn't work look up this:
Helen Frankenthaler-Art Practice Activity (Julia Maiolo))
This video gives a great demonstration on how to implement her techniques into the classroom.
Helen Frankenthaler is one of the most influential female artist of the mid-twentieth century. She gave us the ability to celebrate the joys of pure color.
Color Field Painting started around 1950, after the action painters shocked the world.
Bibliography
History of Color Field Painting:
- Wilkin,Karen and Carl Belz. Color as Field:American Painting, 1950-1975.Washington, DC: American Federation of the Arts, 2007.
- Wilkin,Karen; Frankenthaler, Helen. Frankenthaler: Works on Paper 1949-1984. New York:W.W. Norton, 1985.
- http://arthistory.about.com/od/modernarthistory/a/color_field_10one.htm
- http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A1974&page_number=2&template_id=6&sort_order=1
- soak stain painting has the liquid paint seeping into fibers of unprimed canvas, this is the mother of Color Field Painting.
- Enamel was used with the action painters such as Pollock, and the surface is where the paints remain when dried. Where Frankenthaler's oil paints thinned with turpentine soak into the fabirc, this gives the illusion that the paints just organically emerged onto the canvas.
- the natural world is not the object of their paintings.( except for Helen who's love of the natural world growing up shines through her work)
- flatness of surface is emphasized.
- overlapping or interacting areas create tension.
- amorphase ( without a clearly defined shape or form).
- color field paintings are huge canvases.
- feeling the sensations of the colors themselves.
- ultimately paintings reveals the emotional state of mind of the artists, "expression".
Flood, 1967
Feminist & Artist
- Visual art one of the avenues used by feminists to express cultural and social injustices.
- Helen succeeded against stereotypical roles.
- she departed from first -generation Abstract Expressionism.
- the focus of her pieces were of the natural landscape, not the existential confrontation with canvas, or a search for higher intellectual worth.
descriptive words to describe her work:
luminescent
misty
natural
organic
color blur
sensual
bright
subtle
cerebral
not action painting (Jackson Pollock)
Synthetic polymer on canvas. 124X140in.Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
Helen used a squeegee to create the flow of her paintings.
Helen's History
- Born in 1928 - Died in 2011.
- Daughter of State Supreme Court Justice
- Studied at the New York School with Jackson Pollock.
- He guided her to explore different painting techniques.
- lead to her famous soak stain technique.
- she also sculpted, printmaking, and created woodcutings that flowed like watercolors.
- wife of late painter Robert Motherwell.
Helen Frankenthaler
(Feminist & American, 1928-2011)