Helen Frankenthaler: Giving up One’s Mark

Following my trip to the Auckland art gallery, I read up on the retrospective exhibition of Helen Frankenthaler’s entitled: ‘Giving up One’s Mark’ 2014-2015 at Albright-Knox gallery. I was interested in the concept of giving up one’s mark, the artist’s absence, the dominance of the material.

I stumbled across a thesis written by an MFA student at University of Nebraska in 2015, ‘Constructing Helen Frankenthaler: Redefining a ‘Woman’ artist since 1960.’ Alexandra P. Alberda.

It discusses how the language used in reviews and exhibition catalogues has slowly developed to focus less on her gender and more on her artwork, as an artist, not a female artist. However, while reading the essay, I noted a few points that were of interest to me and to my current thinking around my art practice.

‘Mountain and Sea’ from 1952, described as an important leap from Jackson Pollack’s work to colour field painting. I looked up the colour field movement and which places less emphasis on gesture, brushstrokes, and action in favour of overall consistency of form and process. A stained painting technique, directly onto unprimed canvas. ‘Letting the painting happen’. Notable artists in this field, Morris Louis, Keneth Noland, Alma Thomas, Sam Gilliam, and Helen Frankenthaler.

Mountains and Sea 1952

Follow ups:

Clement Greenberg organized an exhibition entitled ‘Post painterly Abstraction’ in 1964 promoting this diversion from abstract expressionism.

Also mentioned is Lisa Saltzman’s article ‘Reconsidering the Stain: on Gender and the Body in HF’s paintings’.

Elizabeth AT Smith ‘Redefining a practice: HF and painting in early 1960s’.

Short Film in the exhibition, FR: towards a new climate’, 1977 Perry Millar Adato. The Originals: Women in Art for a TV series for WNET.