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Lot Essay
Applying paint directly to the surface of the unprimed canvas, Helen Frankenthaler creates a diaphanous network of color which dances around the canvas, some pigments confronting the viewer directly, while others retract into the distance. This ‘push and pull’ effect, first theorized by Hans Hoffman suggests depth and movement in the picture as brighter colors ‘push’ towards the canvas’ surface and cooler colors ‘pull’ away. 25 years prior to this painting’s conception, Helen Frankenthaler spent the summer of 1950 studying under Hans Hoffman, the catalyst of the Abstract Expressionist movement. In Provincetown, learning alongside Hoffman, Frankenthaler created both intimately scaled works as well as large canvases that evoke nature and the landscape.
Akin to the prolific British seascape painter J.M.W Turner, Frankenthaler conjures the sublime in her paintings. In Fallen Angel the lively bursts of color synchronize in a muted harmony: stained maroon is given depth by subsequent washes of blue and yellow hues. Flashes of orange and red accent the composition as strokes of white mimic the horizontal washes beneath. Able to evoke the instantaneous as well as the infinite, Frankenthaler believed that, “a really good picture looks as if it's happened at once. It's an immediate image” (H. Frankenthaler, quoted by J. Babington, "Against the grain: the woodcuts of Helen Frankenthaler."Artonview, vol. 44, pp. 22–27). The painting’s sheer magnitude in addition to its depth of color, bestow upon the viewer a sense of awe and wonder, which rival the atmospheric sea-torn landscapes of Turner.
Influenced by painters such as Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, Frankenthaler serves as a link between Abstract Expressionism and Color Field painting. Inspired in part by Pollock, in 1952 she pioneered her signature soak-stain technique for which she would pour diluted oil paint onto unprimed canvas to produce luminescent bands of color. The technique was adopted by other artists, notably Morris Louis and Kenneth Noland, and launched the second generation of the Color Field school of painting. In fact, Louis famously remarked that Frankenthaler was “a bridge between Pollock and what was possible” (M. Louis, quoted by E. Gibson, "Pushing Past Abstraction," Wall Street Journal, December 27, 2011).
Continuing a lineage of Abstract Expressionists who explored themes of mythology and the Bible (such as Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman), Frankenthaler investigated similar themes yet from an innovative painterly approach. In 1964 Clement Greenberg, the art critic most responsible for the popularization of Abstract Expressionism, sought to capture these innovations in painting when he organized the groundbreaking exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. In this exhibition, Greenberg sought to highlight what he saw as an outgrowth and progression of Abstract Expressionism, of which he defiantly outlined his observations in his essay for the catalogue, explaining that "As far as style is concerned, the reaction presented here is largely against the mannered drawing and the mannered design of Painterly Abstraction, but above all against the last. By contrast with the interweaving of light and dark gradations in the typical Abstract Expressionist picture, all the artists in this show move towards a physical openness of design, or towards linear clarity, or towards both. They continue, in this respect, a tendency that began well inside Painterly Abstraction itself, in the work of artists like Still, Newman, Rothko, Motherwell, Gottlieb, Mathieu, the 1950-54 Kline, and even Pollock. A good part of the reaction against Abstract Expressionism is, as I've already suggested, a continuation of it. There is no question, in any case, of repudiating its best achievements. Almost a quarter of the painters represented in this show continue in one way or another to be painterly in their handling or execution Helen Frankenthaler's soakings and blottings of paint open rather than close the picture, and would do so even without the openness of her layout" (C. Greenberg, "Post-Painterly Abstraction," in The Collected Essays and Criticism, Volume 4: Modernism with a Vengeance, 1957-1969, Chicago, 1993, pp. 194-195). As the only female artist included in Post-Painterly Abstraction, Frankenthaler's participation in this momentous exhibition signaled her position as a recognized leader amongst the second generation abstract expressionists. The openness of her forms certainly distinguished her works from the hard-edged and more geometric leanings of her male counterparts.
Fallen Angels embodies a quality different than that of Color Field painting and Abstract Expressionism, one that is grounded in abstract tradition but embodied by the Avant Garde. Whether experimenting with the subtleties of color field painting or the formal qualities of Post Painterly Abstraction, Frankenthaler aligns herself in a tradition of pioneers who have challenged the conventions of painting, and in turn pushed painting forward.
Akin to the prolific British seascape painter J.M.W Turner, Frankenthaler conjures the sublime in her paintings. In Fallen Angel the lively bursts of color synchronize in a muted harmony: stained maroon is given depth by subsequent washes of blue and yellow hues. Flashes of orange and red accent the composition as strokes of white mimic the horizontal washes beneath. Able to evoke the instantaneous as well as the infinite, Frankenthaler believed that, “a really good picture looks as if it's happened at once. It's an immediate image” (H. Frankenthaler, quoted by J. Babington, "Against the grain: the woodcuts of Helen Frankenthaler."Artonview, vol. 44, pp. 22–27). The painting’s sheer magnitude in addition to its depth of color, bestow upon the viewer a sense of awe and wonder, which rival the atmospheric sea-torn landscapes of Turner.
Influenced by painters such as Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, Frankenthaler serves as a link between Abstract Expressionism and Color Field painting. Inspired in part by Pollock, in 1952 she pioneered her signature soak-stain technique for which she would pour diluted oil paint onto unprimed canvas to produce luminescent bands of color. The technique was adopted by other artists, notably Morris Louis and Kenneth Noland, and launched the second generation of the Color Field school of painting. In fact, Louis famously remarked that Frankenthaler was “a bridge between Pollock and what was possible” (M. Louis, quoted by E. Gibson, "Pushing Past Abstraction," Wall Street Journal, December 27, 2011).
Continuing a lineage of Abstract Expressionists who explored themes of mythology and the Bible (such as Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman), Frankenthaler investigated similar themes yet from an innovative painterly approach. In 1964 Clement Greenberg, the art critic most responsible for the popularization of Abstract Expressionism, sought to capture these innovations in painting when he organized the groundbreaking exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. In this exhibition, Greenberg sought to highlight what he saw as an outgrowth and progression of Abstract Expressionism, of which he defiantly outlined his observations in his essay for the catalogue, explaining that "As far as style is concerned, the reaction presented here is largely against the mannered drawing and the mannered design of Painterly Abstraction, but above all against the last. By contrast with the interweaving of light and dark gradations in the typical Abstract Expressionist picture, all the artists in this show move towards a physical openness of design, or towards linear clarity, or towards both. They continue, in this respect, a tendency that began well inside Painterly Abstraction itself, in the work of artists like Still, Newman, Rothko, Motherwell, Gottlieb, Mathieu, the 1950-54 Kline, and even Pollock. A good part of the reaction against Abstract Expressionism is, as I've already suggested, a continuation of it. There is no question, in any case, of repudiating its best achievements. Almost a quarter of the painters represented in this show continue in one way or another to be painterly in their handling or execution Helen Frankenthaler's soakings and blottings of paint open rather than close the picture, and would do so even without the openness of her layout" (C. Greenberg, "Post-Painterly Abstraction," in The Collected Essays and Criticism, Volume 4: Modernism with a Vengeance, 1957-1969, Chicago, 1993, pp. 194-195). As the only female artist included in Post-Painterly Abstraction, Frankenthaler's participation in this momentous exhibition signaled her position as a recognized leader amongst the second generation abstract expressionists. The openness of her forms certainly distinguished her works from the hard-edged and more geometric leanings of her male counterparts.
Fallen Angels embodies a quality different than that of Color Field painting and Abstract Expressionism, one that is grounded in abstract tradition but embodied by the Avant Garde. Whether experimenting with the subtleties of color field painting or the formal qualities of Post Painterly Abstraction, Frankenthaler aligns herself in a tradition of pioneers who have challenged the conventions of painting, and in turn pushed painting forward.