Helen Frankenthaler

When the Snow Melts (1975) and After Hours (1975) are outstanding examples of Frankenthaler’s panoramic, over four-metre-wide works created in the mid-1970s. In a new approach, Frankenthaler began tinting the canvas before painting rather than soaking untreated fabric with colour. This full-colour coating seals the canvas and creates a barrier between paint and ground, once again making the canvas a literal support for the image. This technique marks a significant departure from the soak-stain method central to Frankenthaler’s early work as well as that of Morris Louis and Kenneth Noland, which is often discussed in terms of the paint becoming one with the canvas. In When the Snow Melts (1975), a greenish veil of paint extends downward from the top edge over a light orange canvas. As seen earlier in Palestrina (1973), two delicate vertical bars appear to halt the further expansion of the floating horizontals along the sides of the painting.

Helen Frankenthaler (1928–2011)

When the Snow Melts, 1975

Currently exhibited: Yes (Helen Frankenthaler: Move and Make)

Material: Acrylic paint on canvas
Size: 179.5 x 429.5 cm
Inv-Nr.: A_147
Image rights: VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn; Copyright: Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, New York

Keywords:

• Abstract Expressionism
• Color field painting
• Soak-stain-technique