ABSTRACT
As a painter, Helen Frankenthaler derives, of course, from the Abstract Expressionist movement and in some respects has remained more faithful to the basic tenets of movement–especially as they were exemplified in the work of Jackson Pollock–than any other painter of her generation. The real interest of her work lies elsewhere, in the quality of its expression rather than in the technical means by which that expression is realized. Without committing her art to the descriptive conventions of traditional landscape painting, Miss Frankenthaler has nonetheless remained within its general orbit of feeling. In refining the style of her abstract landscapes, Miss Frankenthaler has narrowed her expressive materials to a very few essentials, mainly color–vibrant, limpid, often elegantly transparent–in the service of a highly simplified design. Beside an artist like Kenneth Noland, say, or Frank Stella, Miss Frankenthaler is indeed a more traditional composer.
