Helen Frankenthaler
Biography
Helen Frankenthaler has a unique method of painting that included staining canvas with thin veils of color which set her apart from other American Artists of the time. She has been described as a bridge between Abstract Expressionists of the 1950s and the Color Field painters of the 1960s.
Her work attracted attention from the influential art critic Clement Greenberg in the 1950s. This lead to several exhibitions, cementing her position as a major contributor to postwar American painting.
Growing up on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, Frankenthaler absorbed the privileged background of a cultured and progressive Jewish intellectual family that encouraged her and her sisters to prepare themselves for professional careers. She married artist Robert Motherwell in 1958 later divorcing in 1971, and then in 1994, married Stephen M. DuBrul, Jr., an investment banker.
Her works are held in the collections of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, among others.
Born: 1928
Died: 2011
Education: Dalton School, Bennington College
Exhibitions
Select Exhibitions
2022
Frankenthaler: Un Poco Más (A Little More), NASHER MUSEUM OF ART AT DUKE UNIVERSITY DURHAM | NORTH CAROLINA | USA
Frankenthaler: Selected Works, GAGOSIAN GALLERY, PARIS (RUE DE CASTIGLIONE) 1E | PARIS | FRANCE
2021
Frankenthaler: Radical Beauty, DULWICH PICTURE GALLERY LONDON | UK
Imagining Landscapes. Paintings by Helen Frankenthaler, 1952–1976, GAGOSIAN GALLERY, LONDON (GROSVENOR HILL) MAYFAIR | LONDON | UK
Frankenthaler: Late Works, 1990-2003, WEATHERSPOON ART MUSEUM GREENSBORO | NORTH CAROLINA | USA
Frankenthaler Late Works, 1990–2003
NEW BRITAIN MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART NEW BRITAIN | CONNECTICUT | USA
2020
Frankenthaler: Tales Of Genji I, SHELDON MUSEUM OF ART LINCOLN | NEBRASKA | USA
Frankenthaler: A Certain Magic, MIXOGRAFIA LOS ANGELES | CALIFORNIA | USA
At One Stroke: Prints by Helen Frankenthaler
THE PENNSYLVANIA ACADEMY OF THE FINE ARTS MIDDLE CITY EAST | PHILADELPHIA | PENNSYLVANIA | USA
Frankenthaler on Paper 1970-1990, ARTHUR ROSS GALLERY, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY CITY | PHILADELPHIA | PENNSYLVANIA | USA
2019
Frankenthaler & Robert Motherwell: The Art of Marriage, MNUCHIN GALLERY UPPER EAST SIDE | NEW YORK | USA
Frankenthaler: Paintings, BERGGRUEN GALLERY, SAN FRANCISCO SAN FRANCISCO | CALIFORNIA | USA
Frankenthaler: Prints – Seven Types Of Ambiguity, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY ART MUSEUM PRINCETON | NEW JERSEY | USA
Frankenthaler: Sea Change: A Decade of Paintings, 1974–1983, GAGOSIAN GALLERY, ROME ROME | ITALY
Frankenthaler: Woodcuts, 1998–2009, PACE PRINTS, 57TH STREET 57TH STREET | NEW YORK | USA
Frankenthaler, YARES ART GALLERY, NEW YORK 57TH STREET | NEW YORK | USA
2017
Frankenthaler: As In Nature, CLARK ART INSTITUTE WILLIAMSTOWN | MASSACHUSETTS | USA
Frankenthaler: After Abstract Expressionism, 1959–1962, GAGOSIAN GALLERY, PARIS (RUE DE PONTHIEU) 8E | PARIS | FRANCE
Frankenthaler & Robert Motherwell: Selected Prints, GREG KUCERA GALLERY SEATTLE | WASHINGTON | USA
2015
Pretty Raw: After And Around Helen Frankenthaler, THE ROSE ART MUSEUM WALTHAM | MASSACHUSETTS | USA
Frankenthaler, Aimée Parrott, PIPPY HOULDSWORTH GALLERY MAYFAIR | LONDON | UK
2014
Frankenthaler: Composing with Color: Paintings 1962–1963
GAGOSIAN GALLERY, NEW YORK (980 MADISON AVENUE)
2008
Action/Abstraction: Pollock, de Kooning, and American Art, 1940–1976, The Jewish Museum, New York, USA
2007
Suzanne Lemberg Usdan Gallery, Bennington College, Bennington, USA (solo)
2005–2006
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia (solo)
2003
Museum of Contemporary, North Miami, USA (solo)
2002
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, USA (solo)
1999
Neuberger Museum of Art, State University of New York, Purchase, USA (solo)
1998
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA (solo)
Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, USA (solo)
1993
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (solo)
1989
The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, USA (solo)
1985
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA (solo)
1981
Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, USA (solo)
1975
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (solo)
1969
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA (solo)
1964
Post-Painterly Abstraction, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, USA
1961
American Abstract Expressionists and Imagists, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA
1960
The Jewish Museum, New York, USA (solo)
1958
Nature in Abstraction: The Relation of Abstract Painting and Sculpture to Nature in Twentieth-Century American Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA
1957
Artists of the New York School Second Generation, The Jewish Museum, New York, USA
1951
9th Street: Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, 60th East 9th Street, New York, USA
1950
Fifteen Unknowns Selected by Artists of the Kootz Gallery, Kootz Gallery, New York, USA