Frankenthaler’s Western Dream presents a lyrical and hallucinatory suggestion of landscape, sky, breeze, heat, and turf, with hints of flora and fauna scattered throughout. The sights and sensations seem to shimmer, coming into being and quickly fading away—an effect of the artist’s innovative method of staining the canvas. The painting is nevertheless resolutely abstract, evolving the techniques of Jackson Pollock that had inspired her in the early 1950s and anticipating the practice of Color Field painters like Morris Louis and Sam Gilliam. Western Dream’s luminous surface and dense composition is achieved through a combination of careful drawing and painting by pouring, brushing, spreading, while strategically leaving passages of unpainted raw canvas "because the canvas itself acted as forcefully and as positively as paint or line or color…and [deciding] where to say this doesn’t need another line or another pail of colors. It’s saying it in space."[1]
[1] The artist quoted in Emile de Antonio and Mitch Tuchman, Painters Painting: A Candid History of the Modern Art Scene, 1940–1970, New York, 1984, p. 82.
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Title:Western Dream
Artist:Helen Frankenthaler (American, New York 1928–2011 Darien, Connecticut)
Date:1957
Medium:Oil on unsized, unprimed canvas
Dimensions:70 × 86 in. (177.8 × 218.4 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Gift of the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, 2023
Accession Number:2023.560
Rights and Reproduction:Helen Frankenthaler Foundation
Inscription: Signed and dated (recto): Frankenthaler 57
the artist (1957–d. 2011; her estate, 2011–13); Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, New York (2013–23; their gift to MMA)
New York. Tibor de Nagy Gallery. "Helen Frankenthaler," January 6–22, 1958, no catalogue.
Washington, D.C. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution. "The Fifties: Aspects of Painting in New York," May 22–September 21, 1980, no. 46 (lent by the artist, New York).
New York. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. "After 'Mountains and Sea': Frankenthaler 1956–1959," January 16–May 3, 1998, no. 6 (lent by a private collection).
Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. "After 'Mountains and Sea': Frankenthaler 1956–1959," June 6–October 4, 1998, no. 6.
Berlin. Deutsche Guggenheim. "After 'Mountains and Sea': Frankenthaler 1956–1959," October 15, 1998–January 31, 1999, no. 6.
New York. Knoedler & Company. "Frankenthaler at Eighty: Six Decades," November 6, 2008–January 10, 2009, unnumbered cat. (p. 15).
New York. Gagosian Gallery. "Painted on 21st Street: Helen Frankenthaler from 1950–1959," March 8–April 13, 2013, unnumbered cat. (p. 123).
Denver Art Museum. "Women of Abstract Expressionism," June 12–September 25, 2016, no. 18 (lent by the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, New York).
Charlotte, N.C. Mint Museum. "Women of Abstract Expressionism," October 22, 2016–January 22, 2017, no. 18.
Palm Springs, Calif. Palm Springs Art Museum. "Women of Abstract Expressionism," February 18–May 28, 2017, no. 18.
Sonya Rudikoff. "Art Chronicle: Space in Abstract Painting." Partisan Review 25, no. 2 (1958), p. 302.
Barbara Rose. Frankenthaler. New York, 1972, pl. 55.
John Elderfield. Frankenthaler. New York, 1989, pp. 116, 125, 141, 144, 396, ill. p. 114 (color).
Michael Klein. "Frankenthaler: Mountains and Sea." artnet.com. March 2, 1998, ill. (color).
Margaret Moorman. "Up Now: Helen Frankenthaler." Art News 97 (March 1998), p. 171.
Anne M. Wagner inJackson Pollock: New Approaches. Ed. Kirk Varnedoe and Pepe Karmel. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art, New York. New York, 1999, p. 194.
Alicia Foster. Tate Women Artists. London, 2004, p. 200.
"Helen Frankenthaler at Eighty." New Yorker (December 1, 2008), p. 16.
Karen Rosenberg. "Upper East Side: Linger (Quietly) for a While." New York Times (November 14, 2008), p. C29.
Karen Wilkin. Frankenthaler at Eighty: Six Decades. Exh. cat., Knoedler & Company. New York, 2008, pp. 8–9, 69, ill. p. 15 (color).
"Galleries: Uptown." New York Times (November 21, 2008), p. C22.
James Panero. "Gallery Chronicle." New Criterion 27 (January 2009), p. 52.
Daniel Marcus. "Helen Frankenthaler." Artforum 51 (Summer 2013), p. 355.
Roberta Smith. "A Young Colorist, Antennas Aquiver." New York Times (March 22, 2013), p. C29.
John Elderfield inPainted on 21st Street: Helen Frankenthaler from 1950–1959. Exh. cat., Gagosian Gallery. New York, 2013, pp. 12–13, 21, 26, ill. p. 123 (color).
Christian Allaire. "Origin Stories: Art Pop." National Post (Toronto) (March 8, 2014), p. WP6.
Shepherd Steiner. "Occupy 21st Street! Helen Frankenthaler at Gagosian." Afterall: A Journal of Art, Context and Enquiry no. 35 (Spring 2014), p. 15.
Lauren Mahony inHelen Frankenthaler and David Smith. Exh. cat., Craig F. Starr Gallery. New York, 2014, pp. 12, 15 n. 14.
"Artists’ Museum Shows and Public Installations, USA." Gagosian Quarterly (Summer 2016), ill. p. 127 (color).
Ariella Budick. "The Village Gang’s All Here." Financial Times (December 29, 2018), p. 19.
Julia Bryan-Wilson in Kelly Baum and Randall Griffey. Alice Neel: People Come First. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2021, p. 110, fig. 76 (color).
Alexander Nemerov. Fierce Poise: Helen Frankenthaler and 1950s New York. 2021, pp. 158–59.
Helen Frankenthaler (American, New York 1928–2011 Darien, Connecticut)
1973
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