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Frankenthaler, Helen

Frankenthaler, Helen (frăngk'untholur) [key], 1928–, American painter, b. New York City. A painter of the abstract expressionist school (see abstract expressionism), Frankenthaler was greatly influenced by Jackson Pollock, with whom she studied. In the early 1950s she developed a technique for staining unprimed canvases with color that was later to influence the color-field painters (see color-field painting). Her abstract works evoke a lyrical and sensuous mood, as in Blue Territory (1955) and Arden (1961; both: Whitney Mus., New York City).

See studies by E. A. Carmean (1989) and J. Elderfield (1989).

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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