Frankenthaler: New
Paintings
Knoedler & Company
19 East 70th Street
New York, NY 10021
tel: 212 794-0550
May 1 - July 18, 2003
By ERIC
GELBER
The cult of the ugly, consisting
of people who equate ugliness with artistic merit, would not approve
of this exhibit. Helen Frankenthaler is still guiltlessly making beautiful
pictures, even though her work has been dismissed, since the days of
Harold Rosenberg, as mere interior decoration. Even supporting critics
have expressed doubts as to the strength of her post-1960s work. Frankenthaler
rejects the title bestowed upon her in the art history books, "The
Founder of the Color-Field School," and aligns herself with first
generation New York School artists, such as Pollock, de Kooning, and
Rothko. She can still be described as an Abstract Expressionist in that
she believes in the expressive value of the painterly gesture. Looking
at the contemplative works in her new show, it is impossible to avoid
comparisons with Rothko. They are almost devoid of allusions and mostly
consist of broad areas of color. Frankenthaler is inspired by the transient
effects of light. Not unlike classic Rothko, these paintings contract
and expand, hum and vibrate. There is a wonderful tension between opacity
and translucency.
Warming Trend
2002
acrylic on canvas, 74¾ x 84¼ inches
images courtesy Knoedler & Company
Warming Trend, 2002,
is a predominantly purplish field of color, with feathery dark and light
blue portions, the whole of which is activated by specks and splashes
of shades of orangey red. In the work Ebbing, 2002, a thick dark
blue, sponged on line cuts through a purplish blue field of color and
almost divides the canvas. This line creates a tension between foreground
and background because at times it looks as if the line is in the foreground
and at other times it seems as if it has been gouged out of the misty
purple field. Frankenthaler is an inventive colorist. She boldly minimizes
the drawn elements in these works, and achieves complexity primarily
through complimentary colors.
Ebbing
2002
acrylic on canvas, 52 1/8 x 81½ inches
Frankenthaler has stated
that she loves the water. Many images made by the finest abstract painters,
Miro, Klee, Kandinsky, Matta, Gorky, have an aqueous feel to them. The
weightlessness these artists (and Frankenthaler) experienced while they
were swimming, the otherworldly quality of being underwater, influenced
their imagery and formal innovations. However, Frankenthaler does not
want the viewer to forget the artifice involved. In Bacchus,
2002, a luscious and billowy purple-white field has thin pink, orange,
blue, and grey lines cutting through it. We are reminded that this is
a painted surface and not a representation.
Bacchus
2002
acrylic on paper, 60 x 74 3/8 inches
CONTINUED
