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Helen Frankenthaler Biography
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1928 |
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Born on December 12 in New York City, third child of New York State Supreme Court Justice Alfred Frankenthaler and his wife Martha Lowenstein.
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1945 |
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Graduates from The Dalton School. Studies painting with Rufino Tamayo.
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1946 |
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Art Students League. New York, NY
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1945 - 1949 |
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B.A. Bennington College, VT.
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1949 |
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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.
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1950 |
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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.
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1951 |
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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.
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1952 |
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Paints Mountains and Sea on October 26.
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1953 |
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Exhibits Mountains and Sea in second solo exhibition at Tibor de Nagy Gallery. Meets Kenneth Noland and Morris Louis.
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1959 |
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First Prize for Painting, Première Biennale de Paris.
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1960 |
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First retrospective exhibition, organized by Frank O’Hara, at The Jewish Museum.
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1963 - 1965 |
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Serves on Fulbright Selection Committee.
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1968 |
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First woman Fellow, Calhoun College, Yale University.
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1968 |
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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.
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1969 |
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Touring retrospective exhibition organized by Eugene C. Goossen.
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1969 |
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Doctor of Humane Letters, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York.
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1970 |
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Eight Lively Arts (ELA) Award.
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1970 |
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Doctor of Humane Letters, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York.
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1970 |
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Gold Medal of the Commune of Catania, Terza Biennale della Grafica d’Arte, Florence.
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1972 |
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Garrett Award, 70th American Exhibition, Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois.
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1973 |
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Doctor of Fine Arts, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts.
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1974 |
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Member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters.
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1974 |
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Annual Creative Artist Laureate Award of American Jewish Congress, Women’s Division.
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1974 |
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Doctor of Fine Arts, Moore College of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
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1974 |
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Doctor of Fine Arts, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.
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1974 |
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Doctor of Art, Radcliffe College (centennial), Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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1976 |
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Art and Humanities Award, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, Women’s Forum.
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1973 - 1978 |
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Member of the Corporation of Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, New York.
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1978 |
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“An Extraordinary Woman of Achievement” Award, The National Conference of Christians and Jews, New York.
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1978 |
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Doctor of Art, Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts.
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1978 |
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Doctor of Fine Arts, New York University, New York.
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1979 |
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Alumni Award for Outstanding Achievement, Bennington College, Vermont.
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1979 |
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Doctor of Art, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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1979 |
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Doctor of Fine Arts, Philadelphia College of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
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1979 |
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Doctor of Fine Arts, Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts.
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1980 |
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DFA, New York University. New York, NY
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1980 |
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DFA, Harvard University. Cambridge, MA
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1980 |
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Doctor of Fine Arts, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.
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1981 |
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DFA, Yale University.
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1981 |
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Doctor of Fine Arts, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts.
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1982 |
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Doctor of Fine Arts, University of Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut.
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1985 |
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Doctor of Fine Arts, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York.
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1985 |
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Doctor of Fine Arts, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri.
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1985 |
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Doctor of Fine Arts, Adelphi University, Garden City, Long Island, New York.
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1986 |
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New York City Mayor’s award of Honor for Arts and Culture.
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1986 |
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Doctor of Fine Arts, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York.
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1986 |
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Doctor of Fine Arts, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri.
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1986 |
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Doctor of Fine Arts, Adelphi University, Garden City, Long Island, New York.
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1989 |
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Connecticut Arts Award (State of Connecticut Commission on the Arts).
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1990 |
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Member of the American Academy.
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1991 |
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Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
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1991 |
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Vice-Chancellor of the American Academy.
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1991 |
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Doctor of Humane Letters, Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York.
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1985 - 1992 |
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Member of the National Council on the Arts, NEA.
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1992 - 1993 |
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Member of the Advisory Committee to the Board, Santa Fe Institute of Fine Arts.
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1993 |
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Doctor of Fine Arts, The George Washington University, Washington, D.C.
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1994 |
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Distinguished Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement, College Art Association. New York
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1994 |
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“Distinguished Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement,” College Art Association, New York.
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1994 |
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“Lotos Medal of Merit,” The Lotos Club, New York, New York.
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1994 |
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Doctor of Fine Arts, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire.
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1995 |
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“Artist of the Year Award,” A.R.T. (Art Resources in Teaching), Chicago, Illinois.
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1995 |
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Doctor of Fine Arts, The City College of the City University of New York.
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1996 |
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DFA. Rhode Island School of Design.
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1996 |
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Doctor of Fine Arts, Parsons School of Design, New School of Social Research, New York.
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1996 |
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Doctor of Fine Arts, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
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1996 |
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Doctor of Fine Arts, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island.
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1998 |
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Doctor of Fine Arts, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts.
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1999 |
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Jerusalem Prize.
Lifetime Achievement Award
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1999 |
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Jerusalem Prize for Arts and Letters, Friends of Bezalel National Academy of Arts and Design, New York.
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1999 |
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Lifetime Achievement Award, 25th Anniversary Gala, Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, State University of New York, Purchase.
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2001 |
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Academician of the National Academy of Design.
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2001 |
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Honorary Member, The Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, Scotland.
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2001 |
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National Medal of the Arts (presented at the White House by the President, April 2002).
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2003 |
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Skowhegan Medal for Painting (presented April 2003).
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2004 |
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Doctor of Fine Arts, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York.
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2005 |
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Inducted into the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame
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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.
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| Selected Exhibitions |
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2006 - 2007
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Frankenthaler: Sculpture, Knoedler & Company, New York, November 2, 2006–January 13, 2007. Catalogue with text by Anthony Caro and Helen Frankenthaler. -solo
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2006
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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.
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2006
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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.
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2005 - 2006
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Against the Grain: The Woodcuts of Helen Frankenthaler, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, November 26, 2005–February 5, 2006. -solo
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2005
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Wilder: A Tribute to the Nicholas Wilder Gallery, Los Angeles, 1965–1979. Franklin Parrasch Gallery and Joan T. Washburn Gallery, New York, | | |