Study On Abstract Painting By Helen Frankenthaler

Helen Frankenthaler（1928-2011）is one of the most representative American abstract expressionist artists,famous for her original "soak stain" technique and color experiments.Her more than 60 years of artistic career has always been committed to the exploration of color media,is considered as the main representative of the field of color gamut painting.She’s color experiment aims to strike a balance between spontaneity and self-control,openness and complexity,and construct humanized nature by using the law of contingency and color field.Her abstract painting experiment disintegrated the "lofty" content of myth,religion and emotion in early abstract expressionism paintings,and expressed the nature of the universe and the perceptual connection between human and objects in a purer and more poetic form language,thus distinguishing her from the first generation of abstract expressionism that emphasized the subject spirit.Frankenthaler effectively combined the two veins of abstract expressionism--action and gamut,and became an important bridge for the transition from the first generation of Abstract Expressionism to the second.This paper takes Frankenthaler’s abstract paintings as the research object,which is divided into four chapters except the introduction.The first chapter takes the overall status quo of the United States after World War II as the background,combines the artist’s personal learning and growth experience,combs the influence of western modern art and New York art circle on it,so as to explore the causes and evolution of her artistic style.The second chapter explores the theoretical basis behind the creation techniques and materials of the artist’s counter-painting as the theme,and the results and value of her personal artistic experiment through a concrete analysis of the formal language of her abstract art.The third chapter explores the spiritual connotation behind her abstract art from the two dimensions of her works: the hint of visual psychology and the exploration of the nature of the universe.The fourth chapter rationally defines her value and influence in art history by asorting out the evaluation and acceptance of her art by the art world.Through the study of Frankenthaler’s abstract paintings,this paper hopes to connect the development path of American abstract expressionism in the past half century,and find out the unique charm of abstract expressionism and formalism in the pluralistic pattern of contemporary art.At the same time,the author also hopes to correct the neglect and prejudice of Frankenthaler’s art in the male-dominated art history by sorting out and discriminating frankenthaler’s artistic value and historical evaluation.