‘Someplace else’? Helen Frankenthaler’s printerly paintings | Intellect Skip to content
1981
Helen Frankenthaler
  • ISSN: 2052-6695
  • E-ISSN: 2052-6709

Abstract

This article examines the role of printmaking in Helen Frankenthaler’s practice. While Frankenthaler is primarily known for her monumental abstract paintings and invention of her ‘soak-stain’ technique, printmaking formed a vital part of her oeuvre over five-decades. Countering ingrained material hierarchies, I consider how manifests within Frankenthaler’s studio practice. In a January 1970 lecture at Yale University, Frankenthaler asserted that that there was ‘a lot more room for development’ within painting and the ‘best of it is going someplace’. Taking up Frankenthaler’s proposition, I argue that her painting developed in the ‘someplace else’ of printmaking. As such, this article moves beyond the narrow confines of a medium specific discourse. Printmaking offers an alternate vantage point – spatially and materially ‘someplace else’ – through which to reconceptualize where and how Frankenthaler extended painting as an aesthetic category, subject and site of artistic production. Focusing on Frankenthaler’s work of the 1960s and 1970s, this article offers an exploration of the parallel reinvention of painting, printmaking and, concomitantly, the studio and workshop during this period.

Funding
This study was supported by the:
  • Terra Foundation for American Art and CAA, Research Travel (Award 2022)
  • University College London, Graduate Research Scholarship (Award 2021–24)
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/jcp_00052_1
2023-11-10
2024-05-03
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Adato, Perry Miller (1978), ‘Frankenthaler: Toward a new climate’, WNET-Channel 13, New York: Helen Frankenthaler Foundation Archives, Helen Frankenthaler Papers.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Andreae, Christopher (1969), ‘Art: The fresh, feminine, Frankenthaler touch’, Christian Science Monitor, 28 February, p. 6.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Anon. (1957), ‘Women artists in ascendance: Young group reflects lively virtues of US painting’, Life, 42:19, pp. 7477.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Armstrong, Carol (2016a), ‘Painting photography painting: Timelines and medium specificities’, in I. Graw and E. Lajer-Burcharth (eds), Painting Beyond Itself: The Medium in the Post-Medium Condition, Berlin: Sternberg Press, pp. 12345.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Armstrong, Carol (2016b), ‘Helen Frankenthaler’s syzygy: Line into colour, colour into line’, in J. Elderfield (ed.), Line into Colour, Colour into Line: Helen Frankenthaler, Paintings 1962–1987, New York: Gagosian, pp. 1221.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Baro, Gene (1967), ‘The achievement of Helen Frankenthaler’, Art International, 11:7, pp. 3338.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Bergstein, Mary (1995), ‘“The artist in his studio”: Photography, art, and the masculine mystique’, Oxford Art Journal, 18:2, pp. 4558.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Blazwick, Iwona (2022), ‘A century of the artist’s studio’, in D. Ades, I. Blazwick, I. Costa and C. Stobbs (eds), A Century of The Artist’s Studio 1920–2020, London: Whitechapel Gallery, pp. 69.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Boorsch, Suzanne (1996), ‘Conversations with prints’, in P. Harrison (ed.), Frankenthaler: A Catalogue Raisonné: Prints 1961–1994, New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., pp. 1144.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Chave, Anna (1996), ‘Disorderly order: The art of Valerie Jaudon’, in R. P. Barrilleaux (ed.), Valerie Jaudon, Jackson, MS: Mississippi Art Museum, n.pag.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Dreishpoon, Douglas (2014), ‘It’s a matter of how you resolve your doubts’, in P. Hatley (ed.), Giving Up One’s Mark: Helen Frankenthaler in the 1960s and 1970s, Buffalo, NY: Albright Knox Gallery, pp. 325.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Elderfield, John (1989), Frankenthaler, New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Elderfield, John (2017), ‘Think tough, paint tough, move on: Helen Frankenthaler after abstract expressionism, 1959–1962’, in J. Elderfield (ed.), Helen Frankenthaler: After Abstract Expressionism, 1959–1962, New York: Gagosian, pp. 523.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Feinstein, Roni (1988), American Print Renaissance, 1958–1988, New York: Whitney Museum of American Art.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Field, Jennifer (2016), ‘New York school painters and the development of avant-garde printmaking in the United States’, Ph.D. thesis, New York: Institute of Fine Arts.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Field, Richard S. (1982), ‘On recent woodcuts’, The Print Collector’s Newsletter, 13:1, pp. 16.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Field, Richard S. (1987), ‘Printmaking since 1960: The conflicts between process and expression’, in R. Field and R. Fine (eds), A Graphic Muse: Prints by Contemporary American Women, New York: Hudson Hills Press, pp. 946.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Field, Richard S. ([1994] 2018), ‘Sentences on printed art’, in R. Pelzer-Montada (ed.), Perspectives on Contemporary Printmaking: Critical Writing Since 1986, Manchester: Manchester University Press, pp. 6971.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Findlay, Jane (2021a), Helen Frankenthaler: Radical Beauty, London: Dulwich Picture Gallery.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Findlay, Jane (2021b), Zoom interview with C. Chalaby, 13 August.
  21. Fine, Ruth (1993), Helen Frankenthaler: Prints, New York and Washington DC: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. and National Gallery of Art.
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Fine, Ruth (2005), ‘Helen Frankenthaler: Nature abhors a vacuum’, The National Gallery of Art Bulletin, 53, p. 23.
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Fine, Ruth (2017), ‘Interview with Ruth Fine Transcript, June 6’, New York: Helen Frankenthaler Foundation Archives, Oral History Project Records, pp. 199.
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Fortnum, Rebecca (2017), ‘Baggage reclaim: Some thoughts on feminism and painting’, Journal of Contemporary Painting, 3:1, pp. 20932.
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Frankenthaler, Helen (1970), ‘Helen Frankenthaler seminar at Yale University, transcript, January 27’, New York: Helen Frankenthaler Foundation Archives, Helen Frankenthaler Papers, HFP.AV. R007, pp. 146.
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Frankenthaler, Helen (1976), ‘Helen Frankenthaler seminar at Harvard/Radcliffe, transcript, November 15’, New York: Helen Frankenthaler Foundation Archives, Helen Frankenthaler Papers, HFP.AV. A010, pp. 136.
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Frankenthaler, Helen (1977), ‘The romance of learning a new medium for an artist’, Print Collector’s Newsletter, 8:3, pp. 6667.
    [Google Scholar]
  28. Frankenthaler, Helen (1994), ‘Interview at Tyler Graphics Ltd., Mount Kisco, New York’, Sound Reel 11, Canberra: International Prints, Drawings and Illustrated Books Collection, National Gallery of Australia.
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Fried, Michael (1967), ‘Art and objecthood’, Artforum, 5:10, pp. 1223.
    [Google Scholar]
  30. Geldzahler, Henry (1965), ‘An interview with Helen Frankenthaler’, Artforum, 4:2, pp. 3638.
    [Google Scholar]
  31. Goldman, Judith (1975), ‘Painting in another language’, ARTnews, 74:7, pp. 2831.
    [Google Scholar]
  32. Goldman, Judith (2002), Frankenthaler: The Woodcuts, Naples, FL: Naples Museum of Art.
    [Google Scholar]
  33. Graw, Isabelle (2018), The Love of Painting: Genealogy of A Success Medium, Berlin: Sternberg Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  34. Greenberg, Clement ([1940] 1986a), ‘Towards a newer Laocoön’, in J. O’Brien (ed.), Clement Greenberg: The Collected Essays and Criticism, Volume 1: Perceptions and Judgements, 1939–1944, pp. 2336.
    [Google Scholar]
  35. Greenberg, Clement ([1960] 1986b), ‘Modernist painting’, in J. O’Brien (ed.), Clement Greenberg: The Collected Essays and Criticism, Volume 4: Modernism with a Vengeance, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, pp. 8594.
    [Google Scholar]
  36. Haffner, Michaela (2016), Fluid Expressions: The Prints of Helen Frankenthaler, Fort Worth, TX: Amon Carter Museum of American Art.
    [Google Scholar]
  37. Harrison, Pegram (ed.) (1996), Frankenthaler: A Catalogue Raisonné: Prints 1961–1994, New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc.
    [Google Scholar]
  38. Helen Frankenthaler Foundation (2022), conversation with C. Chalaby at the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, New York, 13 July, n.pag.
    [Google Scholar]
  39. Lowndes, Joan (1975), ‘The human edge: It’s the Frankenthaler effect in painting’, The Vancouver Sun, 10 April, p. 29.
    [Google Scholar]
  40. Jones, Caroline (1996), Machine in the Studio: Constructing the Post-war American Artist, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  41. Krens, Thomas (1980), Helen Frankenthaler: Prints 1961–1979, New York: Harper & Row.
    [Google Scholar]
  42. ‘Making More Than One’ (1976), WYNE Documentary, audio-visual collection, Courtesy Robert Rauchenberg Foundation Archives, New York.
    [Google Scholar]
  43. Molesworth, Helen (2007), ‘Painting with ambivalence’, in C. Butler and L. G. Mark (eds), WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution, Cambridge MA: MIT Press, pp. 42839.
    [Google Scholar]
  44. Nairne, Eleanor (2021), ‘Finished pictures, Polish, candy: Women artists of the New York School’, in C. Macel and K. Ziebinska-Lewandowska (eds), Women in Abstraction, New York and London: Thames and Hudson, pp. 14851.
    [Google Scholar]
  45. Nemser, Cindy (1971), ‘Interview with Helen Frankenthaler’, Arts Magazine, 46:2, pp. 5155.
    [Google Scholar]
  46. Noel Robbins, Christa (2021), Artist as Author: Action and Intent in Late-Modernist American Painting, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  47. Pollock, Griselda (1992), ‘Painting, feminism, history’, in M. Barrett and A. Philips (eds), Destabilising Theory: Contemporary Feminist Debates, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, pp. 13876.
    [Google Scholar]
  48. Roberts, Michael (1980), ‘Artist gives first Michigan show’, Midland Daily News, 22 February, n.pag.
    [Google Scholar]
  49. Robertson, Jose and Kaoru Alfonso ([1994] 2005), ‘OK to print: Helen Frankenthaler at Tyler Graphics, Mount Kisco, New York’, Canberra: Kenneth Tyler Film and Sound Archive at the National Gallery of Australia.
    [Google Scholar]
  50. Rose, Barbara (1969), ‘Painting within the tradition: The career of Helen Frankenthaler’, Artforum, 7:8, pp. 2832.
    [Google Scholar]
  51. Rose, Barbara (1971), Frankenthaler, New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc.
    [Google Scholar]
  52. Russell, John (1975), ‘Art: Helen Frankenthaler at Corcoran’, New York Times, 2 May, p. 20.
    [Google Scholar]
  53. Saltzman, Lisa (2005), ‘Reconsidering the stain: On gender and the body in Helen Frankenthaler’s Paintings’, in N. Broude and M. Garrard (eds), Reclaiming Female Agency: Feminist Art History After Postmodernism, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, pp. 37383.
    [Google Scholar]
  54. Tyler, Kenneth (2011), ‘Interview with Kenneth Tyler, transcript: July 1’, New York: Helen Frankenthaler Foundation Archives, Oral History Project Records, pp. 145.
    [Google Scholar]
http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journals/10.1386/jcp_00052_1
Loading
/content/journals/10.1386/jcp_00052_1
Loading

Data & Media loading...

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error