Abstract Paintings of Helen Frankenthaler - Arizona - Scottsdale ID1548589

Born in New York City, Frankenthaler studied at the Dalton School under Rufino Tamayo and later attended Bennington College in Vermont. It was during her time at Bennington that she decided to pursue a career in painting while studying under the guidance of the influential artist Paul Feeley; she later studied with Wallace Harrison and Hans Hofmann, too. Frankenthaler's breakthrough came in the early 1950s when she developed her signature "soak-stain" method. Her method, which involved pouring diluted paint directly onto unprimed canvas and allowing the pigments to soak into the fabric, created expressive dyed areas and allowed for a high degree of chance in her work. This method gave a unique and ethereal quality to Frankenthaler’s painting that set her apart from the other abstract action painters of her generation, many of whom employed thick applications of paint and heavy layers of impasto. Helen Frankenthaler's paintings often involve sweeping washes of color overlaid by swift, eloquent brushwork, ultimately capturing a subject without representing it. Please contact us if you ever have any further questions at: https://www.larsengallery.com/