Horoscope (for K.B.)

A canvas of impressive scale and distinction, Helen Frankenthaler’s Horoscope (for K.B.) displays the luminous color, lyricism, beauty and elegance that are the signature qualities of this important proponent of abstraction. Frankenthaler was an essential member of the second generation of Abstract Expressionists and a crucial influence in the development of the Color Field School of painting. In her work, she gave color a new independence, allowing it to float free, untethered by representation or gesture, resulting in the expansive fields of pure color that lie at the very heart of the present work.

In Horoscope (for K.B.) three broad planes of color, blue, orange and pink, occupy most of the pictorial space of the painting, their edges flowing into each other. 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. Planes of color build the architecture of the work, the pigment applied with varying degrees of density, from light washes and even the occasional splash of pigment, to deeper, more heavily built-up areas. Frankenthaler’s paint technique produced waves of color, her paint not resting on top of the canvas but rather soaking into the very weave of the material, mingling with and becoming a part of it.

Helen Frankenthaler’s innovative working process, as exemplified in Horoscope (for K.B.), created new possibilities for a generation of artists. Experimenting with the subtleties of Color Field painting and 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. Her work is now regarded as 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 and scale for those artists who were to define the Minimalist movement of the sixties. Proceeds from this sale will directly benefit student scholarships at the Ringling College of Art and Design.