Helen Frankenthaler 1923-2011 Photograph of Helen Frankenthaler by Gordon Parks, 1956 for an article in Life Magazine. Before we begin, can anyone tell me which artist we looked at last month? (Edgar Degas) Can you remember anything about his art? Today we are going to talk about Helen Frankenthaler, an artist who worked in the 20th century. Who was Helen Frankenthaler? She was born in New York City on December 12, 1928. She came from a wealthy family who liked to travel. The colors and shapes she saw in the places she visited would be an important part of her art. By the time she turned 16 she knew she wanted to be an artist. She studied to be an artist in high school and then in college. She returned to New York after college where she set up her studio. She was part of a group of artists all working in a similar STYLE called ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM. They painted BIG paintings like the ones you see here that focused color, shape & line instead of recognizable subjects. Frankenthaler had early success and even had an article written about her in a famous magazine. She was photographed a lot throughout her long career. She died in 2011 at the age of 83.

BIG IDEA #1: Frankenthaler worked in a style we call ABSTRACT Swan Lake II, Helen Frankenthaler, 1951, oil on canvas, 7’5 1/8” x 7’9 ¾”, private collection. There is no title on this slide on purpose so the kids don’t know what this represents right away. BIG IDEA #1: Frankenthaler worked in a style we call ABSTRACT What does ABSTRACT mean when we talk about a work of art? It means there is no immediately recognizable subject. Abstract artists like Frankenthaler may be thinking about natural objects, but simplifying them. Many artists of her time wanted to explore color and line as a way to express their own emotions & ideas. Like them, Frankenthaler wanted colors and shape to be the subject of her work. Sometimes we don’t like this kind of painting because we can’t immediately understand it. Abstract (or “modern art”) often asks us to spend time carefully looking to really let ourselves see & experience it. We also have personal responses to it and bring our own ideas to what it means. It is art that is open to interpretation. QUESTIONS: Can you see anything you recognize in this painting? Now tell the students the title. What do you think this work is about? Titles can tell us a lot about what an artist wants us to see.

Mountains & Sea, oil & charcoal on unsized, unprimed canvas , 1952 Mountains & Sea, Helen Frankenthaler, 1952, oil & charcoal on unsized, unprimed canvas, 7’ X 10’, Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, on extended loan to National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. BIG IDEA #2: This work was a BREAKTHROUGH (like a light bulb lighting up in her mind) moment for Frankenthaler and where she starts to paint differently. She was inspired by other artists to put her canvas directly on the floor instead of upright on an easel. She had the idea to STAIN the canvas with thinned oil paint so that the colors SOAKED into the fabric rather than sit on top of it. It is called a SOAK-STAIN technique that she PIONEERED and other artists started using. Artists were taught to PRIME or prepare the canvas creating a GROUND or base layer making a smooth surface to paint on. Frankenthaler instead painted on raw canvas so the colors would soak in. Her staining technique makes the paint translucent (can see through it) She emphasizes the materials used to make the painting and its flat surface. She also uses charcoal to draw on the canvas and does not hide these lines. The colors and shapes she used were inspired by a trip to Nova Scotia in Canada where there is a rocky coastline. In fact she thought of her paintings as “landscapes” even though they don’t represent it as it actually looks. This work is like being in a landscape – it measures 7’ x 9’ QUESTIONS: Can you imagine how it would feel standing in front of this painting? (You can! It is at the National Gallery!) Do you see anything in this painting that looks like part of a landscape? (point out the right side where it looks like the horizon over the water with mountains rising up like the coast of Nova Scotia) Do you see different ways of applying the paint? – big, flat areas, areas where it is spattered, areas where it drips. Mountains & Sea, oil & charcoal on unsized, unprimed canvas , 1952

Photograph of Helen Frankethaler by Ernst Haas, 1969. In these photos you can see Frankenthler at work. Sometimes her canvases were so large there was barely enough room to walk around the edge of them. Frankenthaler was always experimenting with how to apply the paint. She used coffee pots, brushes, sponges, cloths, and her hands. In this way she could create different textures, drips, swirls of color, and imply movement. The way she painted was very active and physical.

Mother Goose Melody, oil on unsized, unprimed canvas, 1959 Mother Goose Melody, Helen Frankenthaler, 1959, oil on unsized, unprimed canvas, 6’8” x 8’6”, Virginia Museum of Fine Art, Richmond, VA. BIG IDEA #3: Frankenthaler picked titles that suggest what her paintings are about from shapes that appeared to her after she made them or places she was thinking of. For the artist the three brown shapes on the right were she and her 2 sisters. To her the red and black lines looked like a stork. She said the whole painting had a “nursery-rhyme feeling”. QUESTIONS: What do you think about this title and what you see in the painting? What about the word “melody” in the title? Do you think there is something musical about the painting? Can we describe the shapes as flowing in areas like music? What do you think about the colors? She uses the 3 main primary colors Mother Goose Melody, oil on unsized, unprimed canvas, 1959

The Bay, acrylic on canvas, 1963 The Bay, Helen Frankenthaler, 1963, acrylic on canvas, 6’6” x 6’7”, Detroit Institute of Art, Michigan. BIG IDEA #4: Frankenthaler started using acrylic paints because she could control them more easily than oil paint Acrylic paint (man-made) was a relatively new MEDIUM when Frankenthaler made this painting. She liked the way the acrylic left clean edges around her shapes Oil paint would leave a lighter border or “halo” around her shapes (you can go back to the previous painting to show this) She also like the bright quality of acrylics QUESTIONS: Look at the way Frankenthaler’s paint is mixing and pooling. How do you think she applied the paint here? Does it look like water? Like a bay? The Bay, acrylic on canvas, 1963

Canyon, acrylic on canvas, 1965 Canyon, Helen Frankenthaler, 1965, acrylic on canvas, 3’6” x 4’3”, Phillips Collection of American Art, Washington D.C. Frankenthaler was part of a group of artists called COLOR FIELD PAINTERS. They are known for the flat, two-dimensional quality of their paintings with big areas of color. The size of their paintings fill tour visual field with large colorful shapes, similar to the way the ocean or the sky fills our field of vision when we are viewing the open landscape. And like nature the shapes are ORGANIC with irregular forms, not straight edges like geometric shapes. QUESTION: Frankenthaler was interested in emotional themes rather than realistic imagery. What feelings might this painting represent? Canyon, acrylic on canvas, 1965

Summer Harp, Acrylic on canvas, 1973 Helen Frankenthaler, Summer Harp, Acrylic on canvas, 9’ x 6’, 1973, Helen Frankenthaler Foundation Frankenthaler wasn’t only interested in the ways color could express emotion. She also used color to create different spaces in her works QUESTION: Do some colors appear to come forward while others recede into the distance? Summer Harp, Acrylic on canvas, 1973

Desert Pass, acrylic on canvas, 1976 Desert Pass, Helen Frankenthaler, 1976, acrylic on canvas, 3 x 4’4”, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Edith S. and Arthur J. Levin. Frankenthaler’s personal experiences and memories of landscapes and nature continued to inspire her throughout her career. QUESTIONS: Have you ever seen a desert? What makes this painting look like a desert? Desert Pass, acrylic on canvas, 1976

Star Gazing, acrylic on canvas, 1989 Star Gazing, Helen Frankenthaler, 1989, acrylic on canvas, 6’ x 12’, Helen Frankenthaler Foundation. Frankenthaler’s style changed over her long career But she always experimented with her materials and different types of images. She continued to paint on a big scale – this is 6 feet high & 12 feet wide! She died in 2011 at age 83, but her experimental painting methods and thematic abstract artwork influenced many artists. QUESTION: Is this painting similar or different from the others we have seen? How or why? Star Gazing, acrylic on canvas, 1989

Today you are going to experiment with paint & watercolor pencils using different tools to apply the paint to create works inspired by Frankenthaler. Look at these examples. Your works will either go in an art show at the Greater Reston Art Center or up in the halls at Sunrise Valley during Youth Art Month in March.