Helen Frankenthaler

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Helen Frankenthaler became the leader of the Color Field painters in New York City, emerging in the 1950s under the influence of Jackson Pollock, Hans Hofmann and Willem de Kooning.  Her mentor, art critic Clement Greenberg, introduced her to most of the prominent 1950s artists, including Pollock and de Kooning.  She was married to artist Robert Motherwell from 1958 to 1970.

Frankenthaler experimented with a novel stain-painting technique, in which she poured paint over an unprimed surface that allowed the paint to soak into the canvas.  This staining and the process involved became her trademark style, and a whole generation of artists, known as Color Field painters, followed her.

Her works appear in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; High Museum of Art, Atlanta; Museum of the 20th Century, Vienna; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and numerous other public institutions.

2021         Ninth Street Women and Their Legacy

2020         American Masters: Art of the 20th – 21st Centuries

2015         American and European Master: Art of the 19th – 20th Centuries

2013         American Masters: Art of the 19th – 21st Centuries