Document Type
Contribution to Book
Publication Date
2007
Abstract
Helen Frankenthaler, like other painters of her generation, was compelled to come to terms with the technical and philosophical modes of Abstract Expressionism's gestural practice. Responding to Pollock's black-and-white paintings of 1951, she evolved a technique of staining raw, unsized canvas with thinned acrylic pigments that became her hallmark and a formative influence on many other painters, including Morris Louis and Kenneth Noland. The method yielded paintings whose images appeared indivisible from their canvas grounds because colors were soaked directly into the surface. Moreover, since the technique de-emphasized the touch of the artist, it potentially renounced Abstract Expressionism's painterly gesture.
Publisher
Frederick R. Weisman Philanthropic Foundation
City
Los Angeles
Repository Citation
Michael Schreyach, "Helen Frankenthaler’s Gravity,” in The Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation Collection (Los Angeles, 2007): 144-55.
ISBN
9780974090818
Publication Information
The Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation Collection