The Print Project: The Marriage of Print and Color – Robert Motherwell and Helen Frankenthaler
Frankenthaler "First-Stone" 1961
Matisse is not the only one to take on color as a subject in print making. Of course there was Joseph Albers, but I am afraid that his color studies were just that: color studies. For me, at least, they never took on the transcendent quality of art.
Motherwell
Helen Frankenthaler
But two people whose work does deal with color, where color is both the subject and object of the print, are Robert Motherwell and Helen Frankenthaler, who, by the way, were married to one another from 1958 to 1971.
Helen Frankenthaler and Robert Motherwell
Motherwell’s work was influenced by Matisse’s in may ways, but perhaps most notably in Motherwell’s collages, which use torn paper as Matisse would use a cut-out. Motherwell’s colors are bold, clear, separate and distinct.
Motherwell
Frankenthaler, whose paintings and prints, seem to be only about color, has found ways to use printing modes to express her use of color. Silkscreens, mono-prints and woodcuts can be found in her print catalog.
Helen Frankenthaler
It is interesting to me to see how very European Motherwell’s work feels, and how American Frankenthaler’s feels. It may be the expansiveness of the near landscape quality of Frankenthaler, that makes me think of the wide open spaces of the West. With Motherwell, his pieces carry the blue of a Gauloises cigarette package, and a squared-up composition that makes me reflect on the nature of a shut up room.
Robert Motherwell, "Untitled (Blue Gauloises Collage)" 1974 lithograph
It is a wonder to think that even a country can be signified by the right color.
Motherwell
What both Motherwell and Frankenthaler both share with Matisse, are the clarity of their color and the singularity of their mission.
Frankenthaler, "Yellow Span", 1968
Books of Interest:
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very insightful about these two artists. i never knew (or forgot) they were married. i find your posts to be very worthwhile reading. thanks
Joe, I think they forgot they were married, also.
I’ve always wondered about their marriage. Would love to see a film made about it. Do you know if there is a biography of Helen in the works? I’ve never found one I felt was conprehensive.
Marty, I don’t know if there is a comprehensive biography on Helen Frankenthaler. There is a large monograph, but that’s different. She shows up in Both Greenberg’s biographies and Pollock’s.
All art is political. All these AbEx pnrtaeis and Pop artists upheld, whether they knew it or not, the political values of those powerful and wealthy enough to buy their work. The reason overt political work isn’t mainstream is because it often attacks those values of trustees, directors and collectors that decide whose career is catapulted to stardom status or left in obscurity. No one is going to promote work that directly attacks them.
Lots of political art has been taken to the streets. There have also been artists trying to side-step these constraints by making work that cannot be bought. But you are right in saying that there are all sorts of constraints on art — from who shows it to who buys it. To say nothing of the under representation of women artists and artists of color. There is plenty to complain about. I always say — If you get to do the work, you win.