Frankenthaler’s style is difficult to broadly characterize. As an active artist for nearly sixty years, she experienced many phases and stylistic evolutions. Her work is identified by the use of fluid shapes, abstract masses, and lyrical gestures. She put much value in spontaneity, saying “A really good picture looks as if it’s happened at once.”
Helen Frankenthaler
Biography
Frankenthaler’s style is difficult to broadly characterize. As an active artist for nearly sixty years, she experienced many phases and stylistic evolutions. Her work is identified by the use of fluid shapes, abstract masses, and lyrical gestures. She put much value in spontaneity, saying “A really good picture looks as if it’s happened at once.”
In 1960, Frankenthaler’s work was labeled under the term Color Field painting. This refers to large areas, or fields, of a single color on the canvas. This style involves hues that are similar in tone or intensity, as well as large formats with simple compositions. The Color Field artists differentiated themselves from the Abstract Expressionists because they eliminated the emotional, mythical, or religious content of the earlier generations.
