Questions & Answers
Our trusted network of 1stDibs sellers answer common questions
What technique did Helen Frankenthaler use?
1 Answer
Helen Frankenthaler is an American abstract expressionist painter that was known for inventing a technique referred to as soak-stain. Soak staining is a process using thinned paint and raw canvas, similar to painting fabric. Shop a range of Helen Frankenthaler work on 1stDibs.
1stDibs ExpertApril 5, 2022
Related Questions
- What was Helen Frankenthaler known for?1 Answer
- What kind of art did Helen Frankenthaler do?1 Answer
- Where can I see Helen Frankenthaler paintings?1 Answer
- What techniques did Giacometti use?1 Answer
- What is the Limoges enamel technique?1 Answer
Shop for Helen Frankenthaler Art on 1stDibs
Sun Corner /// Abstract Expressionism Helen Frankenthaler Female Post-War Modern
By Helen Frankenthaler
Located in Saint Augustine, FL
Artist: Helen Frankenthaler (American, 1928-2011)
Title: "Sun Corner"
Portfolio: The Metropolitan Scene
*Signed, dated, and numbered by Frankenthaler (inscribed into the metal) lower right
Year: 1968
Medium: Original Screenprint on core-filled, baked Aluminum Panel
Limited edition: 17/50, (there were also 4 artist's proofs)
Printer: Sheila Marbain of Maurel Studios, New York, NY
Publisher: Tanglewood Press, New York, NY
Reference: "Frankenthaler: A Catalogue Raisonné - Prints 1961-1994" - Harrison No. 12, page 90-91; Berggruen No. 13; Clark No. 13
Framing: Recently framed in a white maple moulding and conservation clear glass with frame-space. All archival
Framed size: 37.38" x 37.38"
Sheet size: 36.13" x 36.13"
Image size: approx. 32" x 32"
Condition: Faint crease upper right. Mild creasing lower right. Some light scuffmarks and scratches across sheet. In otherwise very good condition with strong colors
Very rare
Notes:
Provenance: private collection - Upton, MA. Comes from the 1968 "The Metropolitan Scene" portfolio of five screenprints by various artists. Printed in four colors from four screens: blue, orange-red, green, and yellow. This is the third screenprint edition Frankenthaler ever made.
"The Metropolitan Scene", a portfolio of prints by Richard Anuszkiewicz, Helen Frankenthaler, Adolph Gottlieb, Nicholas Krushenick, Roy Lichtenstein, and George Segal, was commissioned for a traveling exhibition organized by the Education Department of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY. The museum received ten Roman-numbered copies for this purpose. Tanglewood Press then released all but Gottlieb's print in numbered editions of fifty. (Gottlieb's contract with Marlborough Gallery, New York, NY, did not permit commercial release of his print by the publisher).
"Air Frame" (cat. no. 6) was Frankenthaler's first silkscreen - a medium that Universal Limited Art Editions, West Islip, NY did not use, although it became increasingly popular for artists' prints, both in Europe and the United States, during the sixties. Several other silkscreens followed in the next few years: "Untitled" (cat no. 11), in 1967, and "Sun Corner" (cat. no. 12) by Tanglewood Press, New York, in 1968. - "What Red Lines Can Do" (cat. nos. 22-26) is a suite of silkscreens published by Multiples, Inc., at that time directed by Rosa Esman, in 1970. - (Harrison - page 19).
Biography:
Frankenthaler was an American abstract expressionist painter. She was a major contributor to the history of postwar American painting...
Category
1960s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Prints
Materials
Metal
Abstract Expressionist poster (Hand signed and inscribed by Henen Frankenthaler)
By Helen Frankenthaler
Located in New York, NY
Helen Frankenthaler
Frankenthaler (Hand signed and inscribed), 1988
Offset lithograph (hand signed and inscribed to renowned collectors)
Hand signed and warmly inscribed in ink on the front
Frame included: Museum frame with UV plexiglass included
Inscribed "to Paul and Joan, love Helen Frankenthaler" (Paul and Joan Gluck were major art collectors)
Measurements:
Framed
42 inches vertical by 34 inches by 1.75 inches
Print
34.5 inches vertical by 27 inches
Helen Frankenthaler, A Brief Biography
Helen Frankenthaler (1928-2011), whose career spanned six decades, has long been recognized as one of the great American artists of the twentieth century. She was eminent among the second generation of postwar American abstract painters and is widely credited for playing a pivotal role in the transition from Abstract Expressionism to Color Field painting. Through her invention of the soak-stain technique, she expanded the possibilities of abstract painting, while at times referencing figuration and landscape in unique ways. She produced a body of work whose impact on contemporary art has been profound and continues to grow.
Frankenthaler was born on December 12, 1928, and raised in New York City. She attended the Dalton School, where she received her earliest art instruction from Rufino Tamayo. In 1949 she graduated from Bennington College, Vermont, where she was a student of Paul Feeley. She later studied briefly with Hans Hofmann
Frankenthaler’s professional exhibition career began in 1950, when Adolph Gottlieb selected her painting Beach (1950) for inclusion in the exhibition titled Fifteen Unknowns: Selected by Artists of the Kootz Gallery. Her first solo exhibition was presented in 1951, at New York’s Tibor de Nagy Gallery, and that year she was also included in the landmark exhibition 9th St. Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture.
In 1952 Frankenthaler created Mountains and Sea, a breakthrough painting of American abstraction for which she poured thinned paint directly onto raw, unprimed canvas laid on the studio floor, working from all sides to create floating fields of translucent color. Mountains and Sea was immediately influential for the artists who formed the Color Field school of painting, notable among them Morris Louis and Kenneth Noland.
As early as 1959, Frankenthaler began to be a regular presence in major international exhibitions. She won first prize at the Premiere Biennale de Paris that year, and in 1966 she represented the United States in the 33rd Venice Biennale, alongside Ellsworth Kelly, Roy Lichtenstein, and Jules Olitski. She had her first major museum exhibition in 1960, at New York’s Jewish Museum, and her second, in 1969, at the Whitney Museum of American Art, followed by an international tour.
Frankenthaler experimented tirelessly throughout her long career. In addition to producing unique paintings on canvas and paper, she worked in a wide range of media, including ceramics, sculpture, tapestry, and especially printmaking. Hers was a significant voice in the mid-century “print renaissance” among American abstract painters, and she is particularly renowned for her woodcuts. She continued working productively through the opening years of this century.
Frankenthaler’s distinguished, prolific career has been the subject of numerous monographic museum exhibitions. The Jewish Museum and Whitney Museum shows were succeeded by a major retrospective initiated by the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth that traveled to The Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Detroit Institute of Arts, MI (1989); and those devoted to works on paper and prints organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (1993), among others.
Select recent important exhibitions have included Painted on 21st Street: Helen Frankenthaler from 1950 to 1959 (Gagosian, NY, 2013); Making Painting: Helen Frankenthaler and JMW Turner (Turner Contemporary, Margate, UK, 2014); Giving Up One’s Mark: Helen Frankenthaler in the 1960s and 1970s (Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY, 2014–15); Pretty Raw: After and Around Helen Frankenthaler (Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, 2015); As in Nature: Helen Frankenthaler, Paintings and No Rules: Helen Frankenthaler Woodcuts...
Category
1980s Color-Field Abstract Prints
Materials
Offset, Ballpoint Pen, Lithograph
Acrobat (detail), Limited Edition Porcelain Plate in bespoke blue box - Abstract
By Helen Frankenthaler
Located in New York, NY
This porcelain/ceramic plate makes a gorgeous gift - in a bright blue bespoke box, ready to be gifted. Any fan of Helen Frankenthaler or Abstract Expressionist art would be thrilled!...
Category
2010s Abstract Expressionist More Art
Materials
Porcelain, Screen, Cardboard, Mixed Media
Contentment Island
By Helen Frankenthaler
Located in London, GB
Screenprint in colours, 2004, on Rives BFK paper, signed and dated in pencil, numbered from edition of 118, printed by Brand X Editions, New York, published by The Dalton School, New...
Category
Early 2000s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Prints
Materials
Screen
Reflections II
By Helen Frankenthaler
Located in London, GB
Lithograph in colours, 1995, on BFK Rives paper, signed and dated in pencil, inscribed ‘P.P.’ a printer’s proof, aside from the standard edition of 30, published by Tyler Graphics Lt...
Category
1990s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Flotilla
By Helen Frankenthaler
Located in London, GB
Screenprint in colors, 2006, on Rives BFK paper, signed and dated in pencil, numbered from the edition of 120, published by the Naples Art Museum, Florida, 78.7 x 93.7 cm. (31 x 37 i...
Category
Early 2000s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Prints
Materials
Screen