Frankenthaler is recognized as one of the great American artists of the 20th century. Her development from Abstract Expressionism to Color Field painting consistently challenged traditional conventions over the course of 50 years. Her innovative "soak-stain" technique, first deployed in 1952 with solvent-thinned oil paint, and then after 1962 with acrylic, reinvigorated abstract art, with pigments brushed, dripped, poured, sponged, and dragged across unprimed bolts of canvas laid out on the studio floor. Her command of color and space, coupled with a process that thrived on intuitive spontaneity, yielded a prolific stream of paintings on canvas and paper.
In the early 1960s, Frankenthaler transitioned from oil to acrylic paint, a faster-drying, less translucent, more opaque medium. She adapted acrylic to her stain techniques with impressive results. Santorini, from 1965, is titled after the Greek island known for its expansive vistas of the Aegean Sea. Athens and the Greek Islands were part of an extended tour that Frankenthaler made with Motherwell and his two daughters, Lise and Jeannie, during the summer of 1965. Their itinerary also included Paris, Venice, and London.
The painting, a prime example of Frankenthaler's poetic abstraction, distills amorphic and geometric forms into a pared-down configuration suggesting elements of land,sea, and sky. The reference to Santorini, the affinity to an expansive sea and a rugged coastline, provides the entry point to an abstract image rife with ambiguity.
Santorini by Helen Frankenthaler, 1965, Guggenheim Bilbao (Spain)
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