Helen Frankenthaler

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

A protean abstract expressionist painter, Helen Frankenthaler can be tender and delicate, powerfully archetypal, explosively lyrical, quietly introspective or mystically transcendental. Her splashy, symbol-laden Eden (1956) seems to conjure up the gates of paradise itself. Her loose, evocative 1950s style, a synthesis of Gorky, de Kooning and Pollock, gave way to '60s color-field experiments a la Mark Rothko, followed by witty, complex, ambivalent metaphors of the '70s and explorations in ceramic tile, steel or clay sculpture, and works on paper. Director of drawings at New York's Museum of Modern Art, Elderfield provides the most thorough survey of Frankenthaler's stylistic growth to date in this huge, sumptuous album. She can pack more meaning into one daub of color than do many artists into an entire canvas, and this volume's platesof incomparable qualityrender visible the texture and hue of the paint. Well over half of the 400 illustrations are in color. (Mar.)

Library Journal

This is a handsomely produced, highly readable study of American abstract artist Helen Frankenthaler. Winning early recognition for her evocative, color-stained canvases, Frankenthaler has fused drawing and painting techniques in her explorations of fluid color, line, and transparency. Elderfield, director of Drawing at the Museum of Modern Art, emphasizes the paintings while weaving in examples of Frankenthaler's works on paper, book designs, tapestries, stage sets, sculpture, and murals. He writes with confidence and authority, drawing upon extensive interviews with the artist. With its 262 color and 138 black-and-white illustrations, detailed chronologies, and lengthy bibliography, this superb critical account is highly recommended for all 20th-century art collections.-- Annette Melville, Research Lib. Group, Stanford