Helen
Frankenthaler
Born in Manhattan, Helen Frankenthaler 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. Rather than painting on a primed canvas, Frankenthaler’s technique involved pouring paint over an unprimed surface, allowing the paint to soak into the canvas. This technique gave birth to the Color Field movement in painting.
Frankenthaler was educated at New York’s Dalton School, and in high school studied with Rufino Tamayo and later with Hans Hofmann. With a studio in New York, her mentor became art critic Clement Greenberg who introduced her to the most of the prominent 1950s artists including Pollock and DeKooning. From 1958 to 1971, she was married to artist Robert Motherwell. She is widely considered the most prominent of the Color Field painters as well as one of the most influential female American artists.
