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Born in 1928 in New York, Helen Frankenthaler achieved early recognition
as an artist for her contribution to American abstract painting.
She had her first retrospective at the Jewish Museum, New York in
1960. A seminal early work 'Mountains and Sea' (1952) completed
when she was only 23, was used as the basis of a major exhibition
at the Solomon R. Guggenheim, New York in 1998. After Mountains
and Sea, 1956-1959, the major study of her work by John Elderfield
(published Harry N. Abrams, 1989) rightly established her prominent
position in the Abstract movement. A less likely honour perhaps
came in 2001 when she received the National Medal of the Arts and
made an Honorary Member of the Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh.
The exhibition, Helen Frankenthaler: Paintings on Paper
(1949-2002) was shown this summer in the newly refurbished
rooms of the Royal Scottish Academy. Compared to her own large exhibitions
to date, and to other major retrospectives on at present, such as
James Rosenquist at the Solomon R. Guggenheim, (reviewed
by Studio International), the Edinburgh exhibition is modest
in terms of the number of works and the scale of the works. However,
in terms of the emotional intensity on show, the exhibition is significant
and inspiring.
Helen Frankenthaler has always worked with paper, as well as with
canvas. Her love of paper began in childhood; for the past ten years
she has worked exclusively on paper. The sizes of the works do not
belong in a traditional context. Frankenthaler has liberated her
works on paper, many of which are 6 x 7 feet. Work on paper has
been useful for her while travelling and when no studio space was
available. The works on paper have a sense of immediacy, even urgency.
They capture the creative act in a most candid and intense way.
Paintings on Paper has travelled to Edinburgh from The Museum
of Contemporary Art, North Miami where it was curated by Director,
Bonnie Clearwater. She also curated a brilliant Frank Stella exhibition
there in 2000 and for both she produced excellent catalogues with
highly readable and informative texts.
Frankenthaler has described herself as a 'traditionalist and renegade'.
She is an artist who can, 'contradict the rules of conventional
compositions and still make a painting work'.2 Early critical attention
from Clement Greenberg focused on Frankenthaler's technique, rather
than the emotional or psychological resonance of her work. Frankenthaler
and Greenberg met in 1950 and became close friends. They visited
galleries and museums together in America and Europe when he was
at the height of his career. It was a pivotal time in the development
of American Abstract Expressionism. Greenberg championed the cause,
extolling the artists for, 'opening up the possibilities of modern
painting'. Although Greenberg had strong views on Abstract art,
Helen Frankenthaler did not simply adopt the great man's views.
Greenberg invited numerous people to view Frankenthaler's 'Mountains
and Sea', including Kenneth Noland and Morris Louis who were greatly
inspired to create 'Color Field' paintings with thinned pigments
on unprimed canvas. In spite of her friendship and his enthusiasm
for her work, Greenberg only once wrote about Frankenthaler's work
in the context of an article on the work of Noland and Louis in
Art International in May 1960.
In this he acknowledged in print what he had often admitted in
conversation that Frankenthaler played a seminal role as a major
influence on Color Field painting.
He ascribed a deeper meaning [than William Rubin] to Frankenthaler's
paintings by demonstrating that her stain technique was not a
means to relinquish control of the painting…Frankenthaler's
stain technique, according to Greenberg contributed to the advancement
of abstract painting because 'the more closely colour could be
identified with its ground the freer would it be from the interference
of tactile associations. The way to achieve this colour identification
was by adopting watercolour technique to oil and using thin paint
on an absorbent surface' so that pigment and canvas became unified
'like dyed cloth'.3
According to Greenberg, Frankenthaler's stain techniques, 'contradicted
the illusion of pictorial space by emphasing the literal, physical
characteristics of the painting as a flat, opaque surface'. In an
interview, Morris Louis subsequently stated that Frankenthaler 'was
a bridge between Pollock and what was possible'.4
In her own training Frankenthaler was most profoundly affected
by Cubism which was taught by artists working in the Cubist tradition
in America (Rufino Tamayo, Paul Feeley). Students at Bennington
College, Vermont analysed works of art in reproduction by Picasso,
Braque, Miro, Mondrian and Kandinsky. The aim of this dissection
and discussion of works, according to Frankenthaler was to make
them 'part of one's language'. Receptive and keen, Frankenthaler
also studied under the Australian painter Wallace Harrison who reduced
the painting, 'to a geometric plane of carefully calibrated flat
patterns…From Harrison's instruction, Frankenthaler learned
that drawing was as important as tone or colour'. Although Frankenthaler
is known as a colourist, she benefited greatly from her work with
Harrison where she was made to work in black and white. The sculptural
quality of much of her work on paper owes much to the structure
of the picture plane that was emphasised at this stage of her training.
Frankenthaler was predisposed to Cubism before she went to Bennington,
but her direction was sealed under Feeley and Harrison. She remained
committed to Cubism even under pressure from Greenberg to purge
it from abstraction because its sculptural elements create illusionistic
space. 'I have remained essentially a Cubist in my conception
of space', she recently remarked. 'I think a painting can be flat
and spacious at the same time.'5
Frankenthaler acknowledges the importance of her teachers and the
element of luck in an artist's career. Hans Hofmann reinforced Frankenthaler's
Cubist training when she studied with him for three weeks in July
1950. She moved to New York after graduation where she regularly
visited museums. Kandinsky and Arshile Gorky were of particular
importance to her, as was Jackson Pollock's 1950 exhibition. Clearwater
describes it as, 'a revelation and her final liberation'.6 In this
context she describes Frankenthaler's work beautifully.
Perhaps because Frankenthaler never abandoned painterly depth
illusion, never worked programmatically, never lost her childhood
delight in painting, she avoided the endgame that impeded some
of her contemporaries careers. She rarely limited herself by working
in series, never fell into a rut by painting by formula, or felt
compelled to be true to the flatness of the picture plane. 'Mountains
and Sea' remains a pivotal work in art history. However, it is
important to recognize how her works that predate this landmark
painting contain the potential for Frankenthaler's career-long
pursuit of miraculous acts of painting. They reveal her true delight
in creating spatial illusion, producing inner illumination and
animated dramas.7
The sculptural quality of Frankenthaler's work has been played
down historically yet it plays a vital role. Her calligraphic work
on paper, often textured handmade paper with acrylic paint (she
switched from oil in the mid-1960s) enables Frankenthaler to layer
pigments. Many paintings on paper are created on coloured paper.
Tremendous action is achieved visually. In the 1970s and 1980s a
more tactile quality was created by using thick clumps of gold and
silver paint. Yet in the formal process, Frankenthaler does not
lose sight of the external world. References to nature are made
constantly, they form an inspired dialogue between inner, private
experience and the outside world or universal experience. In her
1984 monograph on Frankenthaler's works on paper, Karen Wilkin wrote:
Her best pictures keep a lively balance between spontaneity and
wilfulness, between intuition and inspired calculation.8
Humour and game-playing are also key aspects of her work - playful
sexuality and comic juxtaposition of objects. Her calligraphic lines
often seem to have a life of their own - they flow from the artist's
hand and are full of references and nuances to spiritual life and
emotional experience. Chance appears to play a part and yet great
control is also in evidence. Frankenthaler captures the sublime
in landscape in a masterful but understated way. Her works are the
product of half a century's acute observation, varied art practice
and reflection. When one looks at these works it is possible to
see the external world (light, forms), the history of art and a
personal dialogue between the two. The exhibition Frankenthaler:
Painting on Paper, is a rewarding and mysterious experience,
there are works to marvel over and never completely comprehend.
References
1. Bonnie Clearwater, Frankenthaler: Paintings on Paper, Museum
of Contemporary Art, North Miami, 2003, p.4.
2. Ibid, p.6.
3. Ibid, p.10.
4. Quoted in an article by James Truitt,, Washington Post, 21 December
1961, Ibid, p.10.
5. Ibid, p.15.
6. Ibid, p.15.
7. Ibid, pp.15-16.
8. See Karen Wilkin, Frankenthaler: Works on Paper, 1949-1984, George
Braziller in association with International Exhibitions Foundation,
New York, p.25. Ibid, p.24.
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