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Lot Essay
"You have to know how to use the accident, how to recognise it, how to control it, and ways to eliminate it so that the whole surface looks felt and born all at once."
A canvas of impressive scale and unique composition, Helen Frankenthaler’s One O’Clock displays the luminous color, elegance and beauty that are the signature qualities of her work. Frankenthaler was an important member of the second generation of Abstract Expressionists and a critical influence in the development of the Color Field School of painting. Throughout her body of work, she gave color a new independence, allowing it to float free, untethered by representation or gesture, which resulted in the expansive fields of pure color that lie at the very heart of the present work.
Helen Frankenthaler's broad sweeps of sporadic color in One O’Clock reflect her desire to take the style of her Abstract Expressionist forebears and free it from the egocentric gestures that dominated the work of her male counterparts. With the passages of reds, whites, blacks and ochre that have been soaked into the surface of the canvas, Frankenthaler has succeeded in creating her personal vision of the dynamics of nature. Alternating areas of translucence, luminosity, opacity and staining of the unprimed canvas support provide a lively set of contrasts across the surface of the work, the colors darker in some areas, lighter in others, the varying opacity determined by the thickness of Frankenthaler’s application of paint. One O’Clock is a seemingly simple yet profound composition in which Frankenthaler demonstrates her innate ability to absorb influences, while remaining true to her own vision. Expertly balanced, the painted passages that congregate around the edges of the canvas are resolutely abstract, yet succeed in evoking a liberating sense of openness and nature.
A massive canvas in scale, One O’Clock measures over seven and a half feet tall. Barbara Rose aptly noted of her large-scale canvases: "When she paints large, Frankenthaler is literally, bodily, in the painting, which means that the kinds of spatial relationships that she is setting up are of a different kind from those created in easel paintings. When she works, she frequently cannot see the entire image at once. For this reason, internal relationships often cannot be calculated in visual terms alone: obviously, they depend on a total motor impulse, perceived by the eye but involving apparently a more total bodily response than the easel painting. One identifies with Frankenthalers paintings not only through the eye but with the body; one senses her space not only optically but kinesthetically" (B. Rose, Frankenthaler, New York, 1972, p. 74).
Helen Frankenthaler's important painting One O’Clock no doubt provided inspiration for many of the artists who would later become Color Field painters. Frankenthaler created her masterpieces by thinning oil paint until she could apply it like watercolor and stain the canvas rather through the use of a brush. Her innovative process created new possibilities for a generation of artists. Each Color Field artist developed their own unique visual vocabulary, but for the most part, they all avoided painterly surface and any suggestion of pictorial depth. Clement Greenberg remarked about the movement: "The fabric being soaked in paint rather than merely covered by it, becomes paint in itself, color in itself, like dyed cloth; the threadedness and wovenness are in the color" (C. Greenberg, quoted in M. Fried, Morris Louis, New York, 1970).
In 1964, Greenberg organized a groundbreaking exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art that subsequently traveled to the Walker Art Center and the Toronto Museum of Art. Greenberg defiantly outlined his observations in his essay for the catalogue, explaining: "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. Painted only two years after this historic exhibition, One O’Clock exemplifies this critical period in Frankenthaler's ever-evolving and influential artistic career.
Although One O’Clock is made up of just a few essential tonalities, Frankenthaler shows us her expert handling of color with areas of translucent staining of an unprimed canvas. 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.
A canvas of impressive scale and unique composition, Helen Frankenthaler’s One O’Clock displays the luminous color, elegance and beauty that are the signature qualities of her work. Frankenthaler was an important member of the second generation of Abstract Expressionists and a critical influence in the development of the Color Field School of painting. Throughout her body of work, she gave color a new independence, allowing it to float free, untethered by representation or gesture, which resulted in the expansive fields of pure color that lie at the very heart of the present work.
Helen Frankenthaler's broad sweeps of sporadic color in One O’Clock reflect her desire to take the style of her Abstract Expressionist forebears and free it from the egocentric gestures that dominated the work of her male counterparts. With the passages of reds, whites, blacks and ochre that have been soaked into the surface of the canvas, Frankenthaler has succeeded in creating her personal vision of the dynamics of nature. Alternating areas of translucence, luminosity, opacity and staining of the unprimed canvas support provide a lively set of contrasts across the surface of the work, the colors darker in some areas, lighter in others, the varying opacity determined by the thickness of Frankenthaler’s application of paint. One O’Clock is a seemingly simple yet profound composition in which Frankenthaler demonstrates her innate ability to absorb influences, while remaining true to her own vision. Expertly balanced, the painted passages that congregate around the edges of the canvas are resolutely abstract, yet succeed in evoking a liberating sense of openness and nature.
A massive canvas in scale, One O’Clock measures over seven and a half feet tall. Barbara Rose aptly noted of her large-scale canvases: "When she paints large, Frankenthaler is literally, bodily, in the painting, which means that the kinds of spatial relationships that she is setting up are of a different kind from those created in easel paintings. When she works, she frequently cannot see the entire image at once. For this reason, internal relationships often cannot be calculated in visual terms alone: obviously, they depend on a total motor impulse, perceived by the eye but involving apparently a more total bodily response than the easel painting. One identifies with Frankenthalers paintings not only through the eye but with the body; one senses her space not only optically but kinesthetically" (B. Rose, Frankenthaler, New York, 1972, p. 74).
Helen Frankenthaler's important painting One O’Clock no doubt provided inspiration for many of the artists who would later become Color Field painters. Frankenthaler created her masterpieces by thinning oil paint until she could apply it like watercolor and stain the canvas rather through the use of a brush. Her innovative process created new possibilities for a generation of artists. Each Color Field artist developed their own unique visual vocabulary, but for the most part, they all avoided painterly surface and any suggestion of pictorial depth. Clement Greenberg remarked about the movement: "The fabric being soaked in paint rather than merely covered by it, becomes paint in itself, color in itself, like dyed cloth; the threadedness and wovenness are in the color" (C. Greenberg, quoted in M. Fried, Morris Louis, New York, 1970).
In 1964, Greenberg organized a groundbreaking exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art that subsequently traveled to the Walker Art Center and the Toronto Museum of Art. Greenberg defiantly outlined his observations in his essay for the catalogue, explaining: "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. Painted only two years after this historic exhibition, One O’Clock exemplifies this critical period in Frankenthaler's ever-evolving and influential artistic career.
Although One O’Clock is made up of just a few essential tonalities, Frankenthaler shows us her expert handling of color with areas of translucent staining of an unprimed canvas. 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.