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Lot Essay
Spanning almost seven feet long, Purple Sage (1982) is an extraordinary example of Helen Frankenthaler’s masterful work from her more mature period of the 1980s. Elegant streaks of autumnal tones, ranging from deep purples to darker reds to burnt oranges, create a light-infused brilliancy that seems to spring from within the canvas. Spanning across the lower register of the composition is a creamy white strand that effortlessly floats apart and comes back together, as if engaged in a dance with itself. Behind this buildup of white rests a stately deep maroon ground, a stark contrast between light and dark found throughout Frankenthaler’s work of this decade. This juxtaposition allows the white strand to pop against the dark background, creating a dynamic and natural emergence of form onto the canvas. The range of painterly handling strokes stretch from calm to violent, from dripped to splattered, to essential swipes and smears, that ultimately erupt in dramatic activation of the vast horizontal surface.
Among the many ground-breaking painters who thrived during the Postwar era in New York, Helen Frankenthaler (1928-2011) was responsible for some of the boldest and most innovative experiments with color. The soak-stain technique for which she has become most well-known was derived by pouring swaths of oil paint laced with turpentine directly onto unprimed canvases laid down on the ground. Beautiful paintings with diaphanous and free-flowing forms resulted from this, which were enlivened by the vivacity of her elegant and rich color selections.
Departing from the dramatic brushstrokes of the first generation of Abstract Expressionism, Frankenthaler chose to emphasize the flat surface of the canvas itself over the effort to use the surface to construct an illusion of depth and, in doing so, she compelled the viewer to appreciate the very nature of paint on canvas. Her work became an essential bridge between two enormously significant movements in mid-20th-century painting, Abstract Expressionism and Minimalism, offering a new way to define and use color for those artists who were to define the Minimalist movement of the sixties. The surface of the canvas, and the play of colors across it, can be thought of as Frankenthaler’s true subject. Art historian Barbara Rose rightly observed that Frankenthaler had a gift for “the freedom, spontaneity, openness and complexity of an image, not exclusively of the studio or the mind, but explicitly and intimately tied to nature and human emotions” (B. Rose, quoted in “Helen Frankenthaler, Back to the Future,” New York Times, 27 April 2003).
Having remained in the same private collection since 1986, Purple Sage exemplifies Frankenthaler’s groundbreaking soak-stain technique and is filled with dynamic and organic forms rendered in a stunning color palette. Colors are darker in some areas and lighter in others, with the varying opacity determined by the thickness of Frankenthaler’s application of paint. The title of the work gives the composition an almost mystical element, with sage signifying notions of healing, clearing space and ancient ceremonies. A cerebral and visceral painter, Frankenthaler’s Purple Sage is a summation of her mature technique and overriding aesthetic vision — the bold washes of color and gestural lines which Frankenthaler imbues across the canvas speak to her lifelong pursuit of defining her own artistic path within the male-dominated world of Abstract Expressionism.
Among the many ground-breaking painters who thrived during the Postwar era in New York, Helen Frankenthaler (1928-2011) was responsible for some of the boldest and most innovative experiments with color. The soak-stain technique for which she has become most well-known was derived by pouring swaths of oil paint laced with turpentine directly onto unprimed canvases laid down on the ground. Beautiful paintings with diaphanous and free-flowing forms resulted from this, which were enlivened by the vivacity of her elegant and rich color selections.
Departing from the dramatic brushstrokes of the first generation of Abstract Expressionism, Frankenthaler chose to emphasize the flat surface of the canvas itself over the effort to use the surface to construct an illusion of depth and, in doing so, she compelled the viewer to appreciate the very nature of paint on canvas. Her work became an essential bridge between two enormously significant movements in mid-20th-century painting, Abstract Expressionism and Minimalism, offering a new way to define and use color for those artists who were to define the Minimalist movement of the sixties. The surface of the canvas, and the play of colors across it, can be thought of as Frankenthaler’s true subject. Art historian Barbara Rose rightly observed that Frankenthaler had a gift for “the freedom, spontaneity, openness and complexity of an image, not exclusively of the studio or the mind, but explicitly and intimately tied to nature and human emotions” (B. Rose, quoted in “Helen Frankenthaler, Back to the Future,” New York Times, 27 April 2003).
Having remained in the same private collection since 1986, Purple Sage exemplifies Frankenthaler’s groundbreaking soak-stain technique and is filled with dynamic and organic forms rendered in a stunning color palette. Colors are darker in some areas and lighter in others, with the varying opacity determined by the thickness of Frankenthaler’s application of paint. The title of the work gives the composition an almost mystical element, with sage signifying notions of healing, clearing space and ancient ceremonies. A cerebral and visceral painter, Frankenthaler’s Purple Sage is a summation of her mature technique and overriding aesthetic vision — the bold washes of color and gestural lines which Frankenthaler imbues across the canvas speak to her lifelong pursuit of defining her own artistic path within the male-dominated world of Abstract Expressionism.