Helen Frankenthaler
Until April 18th, 2022, the Dulwich Picture Gallery will present the first major UK exhibition of woodcuts by the leading Abstract Expressionist, Helen Frankenthaler (1928–2011). Shining a light on the artist’s groundbreaking woodcuts, it will showcase works never shown before in the UK that reveal Frankenthaler as a creative force and a trailblazer of printmaking, who endlessly pushed the possibilities of the medium. We are very happy we can present her works to you in DailyArt, all thanks to the Dulwich Picture Gallery. <3
Layers of vegetable inks create a colorful mirage that is heightened by the expressive mahogany wood grain in this print. The rust-colored gestural mark emerging as the focal point is one of few elements left from the original drawing.
Frankenthaler was invited to collaborate with Crown Point Press to work with Japanese Ukiyo-e printmakers. Unsatisfied with the first results, she decided to travel to Japan to make the print there working alongside the expert wood carver Reizo Monjyu, master printer Tadashi Toda, and translator Hidekatsu Takada in an artist’s studio on the outskirts of Kyoto. Together they found the feeling Frankenthaler was chasing, switching to a mahogany grain for some of the blocks, using water-based inks over pale pink tinted paper, and employing hand overprinting to add intensity and depth to the final print.
P.S. Click here to find out more about the show in the Dulwich Picture Gallery in our interview with the exhibition curator, Jane Findlay. :)
P.P.S. Helen Frankenthaler's works are amazing when you look at them in the museum. If you love visiting museums and writing down your impressions of the masterpieces you see, check out our Art Journals here.
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