Final Paper - A Tribute to Helen Frankenthaler's Bayside

For my final project, I chose to create a visual tribute to the work of Helen Frankenthaler, focusing on her painting entitled Bayside. Inspired by her innovative technique and delicate treatment of color, I attempted to mimic her technique for applying paint to the canvas and her emphasis on the immediacy of the art. During the process of creating my final project I discovered a new appreciation for Frankenthaler’s caliber of artistic sophistication and her influence on art in the twentieth century.

As an artist during the Abstract Expressionism movement, Frankenthaler stands as a significant cultural figure for her contributions to the artistic styles and techniques of twentieth century America. Although she preferred an understated, under-worked painting style, Frankenthaler was a trained artist; she attended Dalton School, studying under the artist Rufino Tamayo, and she also studied at Bennington College. Launching her career by following Abstract Expressionism, she painted and exhibited Mountains and Sea, a work that exhibits her technique of diluting oil paints with turpentine to give a watercolor-like effect. Later in her career, Frankenthaler’s work would be described as Color-field painting, which is a style that exhibits large areas of color and deemphasizes the form and surface of the painting.

Because of her work with the Color-field movement and her distinctive technique, Frankenthaler established herself as an important cultural figure. Her significance can be detected in her work Bayside. The painting is often used to show the characteristics of the Color-field genre; Bayside is composed three largely flat planes of color on a canvas without the highly personal or gestural application of paint that is characteristic of Abstract Expressionism. Instead, the focus is on the subtle variation of the intensity and denseness in each color, particularly in the patterns of the vibrant blue of the bay. This effect of subtle coloring and shape is largely present because of the thinned-out paint’s ability to soak into the canvas. The subtle yet immediately compelling qualities of Bayside are what have allowed the painting, as well as other works of Frankenthaler, to stand as a noteworthy cultural artifact.

Although Frankenthaler’s works contain obvious artistic merit, there are critics of her works like Bayside who seem to limit her significance by labeling her works as inherently feminine; her art and technique are often seen only as female counterparts to the more violent, physical techniques of contemporary artists such as Jackson Pollock. While I do agree that Frankenthaler brings a new delicate perspective to the realm of abstract painting, I also believe that her works like Bayside possess a complexity and sophistication that cannot be simplistically labeled as solely feminine.

When I first saw an image of Bayside, I was immediately impressed with overall gracefulness of the piece as well as its bold elements, such as an occasional jagged line or a particularly dark pool of blue paint—reasons why choosing to pay tribute to this piece was a natural decision. By creating my own humble tribute to Bayside and the other works of Helen Frankenthaler, I gained a new appreciation for her virtuosity with her technique as well as her gift for creating works of art that appear initially simple but can create lasting, complex impressions.