Born in New York City, Frankenthaler attended the prestigious Dalton School and, after
completing her studies at Bennington College in Vermont, returned to the city's vibrant art
scene. There the artist studied under Hans Hofmann, a leading exponent of European
Modernism.
As a second generation Abstract Expressionist, Frankenthaler was strongly influenced
by the work of Gorky, Pollack and de Kooning, yet she sought a unique means of personal
expression. The breakthrough occurred in 1952, after a summer spent painting watercolors in
the Canadian Maritimes. These paintings, abstract landscapes of the Nova Scotia coast,
inspired an unconventional merging of the fluid translucency of watercolor with the gestural
qualities of Abstract Expressionism.
Working on the floor of her New York studio, Frankenthaler devised a unique technique
using oil paint thinned to a watery consistency and alternately pouring and dripping the paint
onto an unsized, unprimed canvas. As paint and plaster become one in the ancient technique
of fresco, Frankenthaler's technique fused paint and canvas into a single entity.
Frankenthaler's masterpiece Mountains and Sea, was completed in a single day, October 26,
1952.
The diaphanous clouds of color that have become the artist's signature and her
revolutionary soak-stain technique became the catalyst for a generation of color field painters,
notably Morris Louis and Kenneth Noland.
Frankenthaler has had numerous solo exhibitions throughout the world, including the
Whitney Museum in 1969 and the Metropolitan Museum in 1973. She was also awarded a
Doctorate of Fine Arts from Smith College in 1973 and is an elected member of the National
Institute of Arts and Letters.
BIRTHPLACE: New York, NY
EDUCATION: Bennington College, VT
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