She is probably one of my favorite ab-ex painters of the mid-century. I love her work, but grew to really appreciate her after reading a little more about her and how she did "it", as in maneuvered the waters of a male dominated society of the 1950s-60s as a female artist, working in a genre, that was considered male. Because, yeah, you now abstract painting is for men, right?
Anywho...
I did a little more reading on her recently to support research for a project on female agency in the arts, which included reading an article by historian Sybil Gohari . In this article, Sybil Gohari discusses how art historians and art critics attempted to use constructions of gender as a lens to critique and interpret the oeuvre of Helen Frankenthaler through the use of nuanced language to describe her work. Additionally, nuanced language was used to downplay her contribution as an innovator of the Color Field movement with Abstract Expressionism. Gohari illustrates how Frankenthaler asserted her agency to combat these situations during her professional working time. Through her intentional refusal to discuss her work, Gohari illustrates how the mechanics of gender during the mid-century influenced the professional career of Frankenthaler and other women Abstract Expressionist artists of this time.
Additionally, her is a Getty recorded interview with Frankenthaler. Check this out if you have the time.
And this is the actual research article:
Gohari, Sybil E. "Gendered Reception: There and Back Again: An Analysis of the Critical
Reception of Helen Frankenthaler." Woman's Art Journal 35, no. 1 (2014): 33-39.
If you want to see examples of her work, a simple Google search should do the trick.
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