Helen Frankenthaler's art offers an abstraction of place, a seized impression of streets, buildings and skies that moves beyond concrete perception: apricot skies; ochre, midnight, plum, and lavender; dripping streetlights, a train scrawled beneath a cloud of green smoke; white sails on a pistachio sea.
Although often difficult to attribute to a definite geographical location, the artist's rendering of her surroundings is nevertheless extraordinarily evocative. Renowned for her soak-stain technique, Frankenthaler is a New York-born painter who also manages to capture the shape of mountains, seas and landscapes in sensual detail.
Join us as we explore the sights and spaces of Frankenthaler’s life, traveling from the roaring streets of New York City to thoroughfares in Barcelona and the beaches of Long Island Sound.
Now available at Shapero Modern, enjoy our curated selection of the artist’s prints, chosen specially to explore the places and journeys that coloured her work.
Streets and City Dreams
Truth comes when one is totally involved in the act of painting . . .(Helen Frankenthaler)
Chris COOK, Top of Soho, 2016.
The following prints are powerful testaments to Frankenthaler’s skill at capturing cityscapes. Centred around Soho, both works describe the rich, dark world of its streets. Animated and evocative while moving beyond the limits of concrete figuration, the artist appears to revel in the movement of urban life.
Helen FRANKENTHALER, Broome Street at Night, 1987, etching, aquatint and drypoint in colours
Late one night in New York City, Broome Street is swimming in shadow. Something shrieks past in a blur of yellow light. A pale sphere, perhaps a taillight, or a streetlamp, or the glass in a church window, winks in the dark. An atmospheric work on Magnani paper, signed and dated in pencil.
Helen FRANKENTHALER, Soho Dreams, 1987, etching, aquatint and drypoint in colours, on Magnani paper
The beauty of Soho Dreams lies partly in its simplicity. A lavender cloud on a maroon background, underscored by lines of vivid blue, while the activity typical of urban scenes is evoked by the energy and varied patterns inherent in the application of the colour.
Journeys through Space
The painter makes something magical, spatial, and alive on a surface that is flat and with materials that are inert. That magic is what makes paintings unique and necessary. (Helen Frankenthaler)
Bruno LEVEQUE, Barcelona, 2014
Although born in New York, Frankenthaler also looked beyond the borders of the city for inspiration. Paintings like Barcelona and Las Mayas reference time the artist spent visiting Spain during her honeymoon and Barcelona in 1987. Orient Express explores the excitement of discovering unknown places. In addition, during her life, Frankenthaler witnessed her work spread widely across the globe, exhibiting in cities which included Chicago, Paris and London.
Helen FRANKENTHALER,Orient Express #6, 1977, acrylic on paper
Acrylic on paper, signed and dated in pencil. With its almost featureless background and bruised orange clouds, Frankenthaler evokes both the heated excitement of travel and the fear of the unknown. Rocketing through an empty space, the train journeys towards the edges of the canvas, inviting its audience to marvel at both the possibilities and pitfalls of exploration.
Helen FRANKENTHALER, Ramblas, 1987, lithograph, drypoint, etching in colours
A handsome lithograph on handmade wove paper, signed by the artist in pencil. Although not definitively verifiable, the title may refer to the famous boulevard La Rambla in Barcelona, a city which Frankenthaler visited in 1987. Simple but striking, Ramblas evokes the quiet of an urban nightscape, lined and smudged with electric light.
Ships, Skies, and Seascapes
I had the landscape in my arms when I painted it. I had the landscapes in my mind and shoulder and wrist. (Helen Frankenthaler)
ALLISON, Gulf Beach, 2012
The final years of Frankenthaler’s life were spent at Contentment Island Road on Long Island Sound. Here the artist’s work became drenched in the colour of her surroundings. Living with her husband in the house they bought together, she continued her extraordinary output, and the following screenprints constitute delightful examples of this later part of her career.
Helen FRANKENTHALER, Contentment Island, 2004, screenprint in colours
An ode to peace and tranquillity, Contentment Island seems to position its audience looking down onto a turquoise sea. A handsome screenprint signed and dated in pencil, characterised by the palette of blues and greens, which, according to the New Yorker, Frankenthaler adopted after her move to Long Island Sound.
Helen FRANKENTHALER, Southern Exposure, 2005, screenprint in colours
Completed during the final years of her life, Frankenthaler’s Southern Exposure might evoke the blinding skies of a sunset over Long Island. Like many of her paintings however, it is not definitively attributable to a specific time or place. The work is nevertheless remarkable for its vivid use of colour, which seems to soak the canvass in light and heat.
Helen FRANKENTHALER, Flotilla, 2006, screenprint in colours
In the foreground of Flotilla, a ship stands poised on uncertain waves. A green sea boils. The sun bleeds on a watery horizon whilst dark skies gather to the left. A screenprint in colours of a striking coastal scene, on Rives BFK paper, signed and dated in pencil.
If you’ve enjoyed our journey through the works of the Helen Frankenthaler, don’t forget to click here to explore our complete collection of the artist’s work.
