Helen Frankenthaler: Composing with Color: Paintings 1962–1963

This book was published on the occasion of Helen Frankenthaler: Composing with Color: Paintings 1962–1963 at Gagosian, 980 Madison Avenue, New York. Organized by Gagosian in collaboration with the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, the exhibition explored a brief but critical period when Frankenthaler made paintings emphasizing color over line as she moved toward the “total color image” (a phrase coined by critic B. H. Friedman) that would become the hallmark of her later work. With allusions to organic elements and landscape, these paintings found the artist experimenting with acrylic for the first time, while transforming her process and approach to composition.

The catalogue features reproductions of the eleven exhibited works, which convey the range of Frankenthaler’s innovations with color and form. An illustrated essay by Elizabeth A. T. Smith, executive director of the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, charts the artist’s methods during this pivotal two-year period. Smith positions works of this era relative to contemporary discourses around painting and as a vital moment within Frankenthaler’s overall development.