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Helen Frankenthaler   (American, 1928) 

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Artworks for sale (156)   View All   

Helen Frankenthaler, Southern Exposure
Helen Frankenthaler
Southern Exposure
2005

Meyerovich Gallery
Helen Frankenthaler, Plaza Real
Helen Frankenthaler
Plaza Real
1987-1988

Zane Bennett Contemporary Art
Helen Frankenthaler, Flotilla
Helen Frankenthaler
Flotilla
2006
end time: Jul 9, 2008 1:00 PM EST
artnet Online Auctions
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Helen Frankenthaler, Vineyard Storm
Helen Frankenthaler
Vineyard Storm
1974-1977

Craig F. Starr Gallery
Helen Frankenthaler, Lair
Helen Frankenthaler
Lair
1978

Jonathan Novak Contemporary Art
Helen Frankenthaler, White Plumes
Helen Frankenthaler
White Plumes
1987

Bernard Jacobson Gallery

Past auction results (1107)  View All
Helen Frankenthaler, Nadir rising
Helen Frankenthaler
Nadir rising, 1974
Sold: May 15, 2008
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Helen Frankenthaler, YELLOW CATERPILLAR
Helen Frankenthaler
YELLOW CATERPILLAR
Sold: May 8, 1990
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Helen Frankenthaler, Hofburg Palace
Helen Frankenthaler
Hofburg Palace, 1956
Sold: Nov 9, 2005
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1928   Born on December 12 in New York City, third child of New York State Supreme Court Justice Alfred Frankenthaler and his wife Martha Lowenstein.
1945   Graduates from The Dalton School. Studies painting with Rufino Tamayo.
1946   Art Students League. New York, NY
1945 - 1949   B.A. Bennington College, VT.
1949   B.A., Bennington College, Bennington, Vermont. At Bennington she studies painting with Paul Feeley. Takes courses at the Graduate School of Fine Arts, Columbia University, including one with Meyer Shapiro.
1950   Organizes Bennington College Alumnae Paintings at Jacques Seligmann & Company. Meets Clement Greenberg and through him David Smith, Lee Krasner, Jackson Pollock, Willem and Elaine de Kooning, Franz Kline, Adolph Gottlieb, Barnett Newman and others. Studies with Hans Hofmann in Provincetown. Adolph Gottlieb selects her work for inclusion in Fifteen Unknowns, Kootz Gallery, New York.
1951   First solo exhibition at Tibor de Nagy Gallery. Makes friends with John Ashbery and Frank O’Hara. Meets Grace Hartigan, Larry Rivers, Alfred Leslie, and other artists affiliated with Tibor de Nagy Gallery.
1952   Paints Mountains and Sea on October 26.
1953   Exhibits Mountains and Sea in second solo exhibition at Tibor de Nagy Gallery. Meets Kenneth Noland and Morris Louis.
1959   First Prize for Painting, Première Biennale de Paris.
1960   First retrospective exhibition, organized by Frank O’Hara, at The Jewish Museum.
1963 - 1965   Serves on Fulbright Selection Committee.
1968   First woman Fellow, Calhoun College, Yale University.
1968   Joseph E. Temple Gold Medal Award, 163rd Annual Exhibition, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.Spirit of Achievement Award (jointly with Robert Motherwell, Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, New York, New York, Women’s Division.
1969   Touring retrospective exhibition organized by Eugene C. Goossen.
1969   Doctor of Humane Letters, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York.
1970   Eight Lively Arts (ELA) Award.
1970   Doctor of Humane Letters, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York.
1970   Gold Medal of the Commune of Catania, Terza Biennale della Grafica d’Arte, Florence.
1972   Garrett Award, 70th American Exhibition, Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois.
1973   Doctor of Fine Arts, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts.
1974   Member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters.
1974   Annual Creative Artist Laureate Award of American Jewish Congress, Women’s Division.
1974   Doctor of Fine Arts, Moore College of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1974   Doctor of Fine Arts, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.
1974   Doctor of Art, Radcliffe College (centennial), Cambridge, Massachusetts.
1976   Art and Humanities Award, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, Women’s Forum.
1973 - 1978   Member of the Corporation of Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, New York.
1978   “An Extraordinary Woman of Achievement” Award, The National Conference of Christians and Jews, New York.
1978   Doctor of Art, Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts.
1978   Doctor of Fine Arts, New York University, New York.
1979   Alumni Award for Outstanding Achievement, Bennington College, Vermont.
1979   Doctor of Art, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
1979   Doctor of Fine Arts, Philadelphia College of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1979   Doctor of Fine Arts, Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts.
1980   DFA, New York University. New York, NY
1980   DFA, Harvard University. Cambridge, MA
1980   Doctor of Fine Arts, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.
1981   DFA, Yale University.
1981   Doctor of Fine Arts, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts.
1982   Doctor of Fine Arts, University of Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut.
1985   Doctor of Fine Arts, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York.
1985   Doctor of Fine Arts, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri.
1985   Doctor of Fine Arts, Adelphi University, Garden City, Long Island, New York.
1986   New York City Mayor’s award of Honor for Arts and Culture.
1986   Doctor of Fine Arts, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York.
1986   Doctor of Fine Arts, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri.
1986   Doctor of Fine Arts, Adelphi University, Garden City, Long Island, New York.
1989   Connecticut Arts Award (State of Connecticut Commission on the Arts).
1990   Member of the American Academy.
1991   Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
1991   Vice-Chancellor of the American Academy.
1991   Doctor of Humane Letters, Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York.
1985 - 1992   Member of the National Council on the Arts, NEA.
1992 - 1993   Member of the Advisory Committee to the Board, Santa Fe Institute of Fine Arts.
1993   Doctor of Fine Arts, The George Washington University, Washington, D.C.
1994   Distinguished Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement, College Art Association. New York
1994   “Distinguished Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement,” College Art Association, New York.
1994   “Lotos Medal of Merit,” The Lotos Club, New York, New York.
1994   Doctor of Fine Arts, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire.
1995   “Artist of the Year Award,” A.R.T. (Art Resources in Teaching), Chicago, Illinois.
1995   Doctor of Fine Arts, The City College of the City University of New York.
1996   DFA. Rhode Island School of Design.
1996   Doctor of Fine Arts, Parsons School of Design, New School of Social Research, New York.
1996   Doctor of Fine Arts, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1996   Doctor of Fine Arts, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island.
1998   Doctor of Fine Arts, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts.
1999   Jerusalem Prize.
Lifetime Achievement Award
1999   Jerusalem Prize for Arts and Letters, Friends of Bezalel National Academy of Arts and Design, New York.
1999   Lifetime Achievement Award, 25th Anniversary Gala, Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, State University of New York, Purchase.
2001   Academician of the National Academy of Design.
2001   Honorary Member, The Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, Scotland.
2001   National Medal of the Arts (presented at the White House by the President, April 2002).
2003   Skowhegan Medal for Painting (presented April 2003).
2004   Doctor of Fine Arts, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York.
2005   Inducted into the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame
  She became the leader of the Color Field painters in New York City, emerging in the 1950s under the influence of Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning. Her work is a transition from Abstract Expressionism.

She was educated at New York's Dalton School, and in high school studied with Rufino Tamayo and later with Hans Hofmann. She attended Bennington College. Her family vacationed in Maine where she learned to love open views of land and sea, subject matter and an attitude of expansiveness reflected in her canvases.

With a studio in New York, her mentor became art critic Clement Greenberg who introduced her to most of the prominent 1950s artists including Pollock and DeKooning, her inspirations for gestural technique, Action Painting. From 1958 to 1971, she was married to artist Robert Motherwell.

Her technique was novel. Rather than painting on a primed canvas, she poured paint over an unprimed surface that allowed the paint to soak into the canvas. This staining and the process involved became her trademark style, and a whole generation of artists, known as Color Field painters, followed her. Her large studio has been in New York City.

In 1999, she won the Jerusalem Prize for Arts and Letters, given by the Friends of Israel's National Academy of Arts and Design.

2006 - 2007   Frankenthaler: Sculpture, Knoedler & Company, New York, November 2, 2006–January 13, 2007. Catalogue with text by Anthony Caro and Helen Frankenthaler. -solo
2006   New York New York: Fifty Years of Art, Architecture, Cinema, Performance, Photograph and Video, Grimaldi Forum Monaco, July 14–September 10. Catalogue with text by Lisa Dennison, Germano Celant, et al.
2006   New York New York: Fifty Years of Art, Architecture, Cinema, Performance, Photograph and Video, Grimaldi Forum Monaco, July 14–September 10. Catalogue with text by Lisa Dennison, Germano Celant, et al.
2005 - 2006   Against the Grain: The Woodcuts of Helen Frankenthaler, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, November 26, 2005–February 5, 2006. -solo
2005   Wilder: A Tribute to the Nicholas Wilder Gallery, Los Angeles, 1965–1979. Franklin Parrasch Gallery and Joan T. Washburn Gallery, New York,