Mountains and Sea
{{Short description|1952 painting by Helen Frankenthaler}}
{{Infobox artwork
| image_file = Frankenthaler Helen Mountains and Sea 1952.jpg
| image_size = 300px
| title = Mountains and Sea
| artist = Helen Frankenthaler
| year = 1952
| medium = Oil and charcoal on canvas
| movement = Abstract Expressionism, Color Field painting, Lyrical Abstraction
| height_metric = 220
| width_metric = 297.8
| height_imperial =
| width_imperial =
| metric_unit = cm
| imperial_unit = in
| museum = National Gallery of Art
| city = Washington, D.C.{{cite book | last1 = Rowley | first1 = Alison | last2 = Brown | title = Helen Frankenthaler: Painting history, writing painting | year = 2007 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=VO4BAwAAQBAJ&dq=%22helen+frankenthaler%22+%22mountains+and+sea%22&pg=PP1 | language = en | location = New York, NY | publisher = IB Tauris | isbn = 9780857713209 }}
| owner = Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc.
| accession =
| website = {{URL|nga.gov/audio-video/audio/collection-highlights-east-building-english/mountains-and-sea-frankenthaler.html National Gallery of Art}}
}}
Mountains and Sea is a 1952 painting by American abstract expressionist painter Helen Frankenthaler.{{cite journal | last1 = Schumacher | first1 = Bett | date = 2010 | title = The Woman Problem: Gender Displacement in the Art of Helen Frankenthaler. | url = https://www.pdcnet.org/pdc/bvdb.nsf/purchase?openform&fp=phenomenology2010&id=phenomenology2010_2011_0493_0502 | journal = Woman's Art Journal | volume = 31 | issue = 2 | pages = 12 | access-date = 12 June 2019 }}{{cite book | last = Cross | first = Susan | date = 1998 | title = After Mountains and Sea: Frankenthaler,1956-1959 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=iCA_PgAACAAJ&q=%22mountains+and+sea%22+%22Helen+Frankenthaler%22 | location = Stuttgart | publisher = Guggenheim Museum Publications | page = 95 | isbn = 9780892072705 }} Painted when Frankenthaler was 23 years old, it was her first professionally exhibited work.{{cite news | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/22/arts/design/helen-frankenthaler-at-the-gagosian-gallery.html | title = A Young Colorist, Antennas Aquiver | date = 21 March 2013 | access-date =14 June 2019 | newspaper = New York Times | author = Roberta Smith }} Though initially panned by critics, Mountains and Sea later became her most influential and best known canvas.{{cite news | url = https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/miranda/la-et-cam-helen-frankenthaler-gagosian-20160914-snap-story.html | title = Pure color: A curator's new view of Helen Frankenthaler's unprimed legacy | date = 16 September 2016 | access-date =14 June 2019 | newspaper = Los Angeles Times | author = Carolina A. Miranda }}{{cite web | url = https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-helen-frankenthaler-artist | title = Helen Frankenthaler on How to Be an Artist | date = 23 May 2019 | access-date =14 June 2019 | publisher = Artsy | author = Alexxa Gotthardt }}
Background
In 1950, Frankenthaler was exposed to the work of Jackson Pollock for the first time during an exhibition at the Betty Parsons Gallery where several of Pollock's paintings, Autumn Rhythm, Number 30, 1950 (1950), and Number One,1950 (Lavender Mist) (1950), were displayed. She was intrigued by the idea of painting a canvas lying flat on the floor, and would later employ that technique for Mountains and Sea.{{cite web | url = https://bigthink.com/Picture-This/how-helen-frankenthaler-blossomed-into-a-great-artist | title = How Helen Frankenthaler Blossomed Into a Great Artist | date = 28 September 2011 | access-date =14 June 2019 | publisher = Big Think | author = Bob Duggan }}
In the summer of 1952, Frankenthaler went on a road trip to Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, during which she painted landscapes there using foldable easel equipment. Mountains and Sea was painted after this trip, and while the painting is not a direct depiction of a coastline in Nova Scotia, it contains elements that suggest a kind of seascape or landscape, like the strokes of blue that join with areas of green.{{cite journal|last1=Elderfield|first1=John|title=After a "Breakthrough": On the 1950s Paintings of Helen Frankenthaler|journal=MoMA|date=1989|volume=2|issue=1|pages=8–11|jstor=4381078}}
Description
The New York Times described Mountains and Sea as, "a light-struck, diaphanous evocation of hills, rocks and water," and the artist herself later said the canvas, "look[s] to many people like a large paint rag, casually accidental and incomplete.”{{cite news | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/28/arts/helen-frankenthaler-abstract-painter-dies-at-83.html | title = Helen Frankenthaler, Abstract Painter Who Shaped a Movement, Dies at 83 | date = 27 December 2011 | access-date =14 June 2019 | newspaper = New York Times | author = Grace Glueck }}
To create Mountains and Sea, Frankenthaler placed an unprimed canvas directly onto the floor and stained color directly onto it by diluting oil paint with turpentine and allowing the colors to bleed.{{cite news | url = https://www.capecodtimes.com/entertainmentlife/20180705/frankenthaler-exhibit-brings-artists-work-home | title = Frankenthaler exhibit brings artist's work home | date = 5 July 2018 | access-date =14 June 2019 | newspaper = Cape Cod Times | author = Debbie Forman }} It was the first time she used this stain technique.
Influence
Mountains and Sea is considered an important precursor to color field painting and has been described as, "the Rosetta stone of color-field."{{cite magazine | url = https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/09/22/pours | title = Painting After Pollack | date = 15 September 2014 | access-date =14 June 2019 | magazine = New Yorker | author = Peter Schjeldahl }} The canvas's impact on the color field movement has been compared to the importance of Claude Monet's Impression, Sunrise to the Impressionist movement. Morris Louis, an abstract expressionist painter and a contemporary of Frankenthaler, described the painting as, "a bridge between Pollock and what was possible."{{cite news | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/19/arts/design/helen-frankenthaler-at-gagosian-and-morris-louis-at-mnuchin.html | title = Color, Chemistry and Creativity | date = 18 September 2014 | access-date =14 June 2019 | newspaper = New York Times | author = Karen Rosenberg }}
The 1980 BBC series 100 Great Paintings featured Mountains and Sea.
The painting is on extended loan to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.{{cite news | url = https://www.huffpost.com/entry/painted-on-21st-street-he_b_2983148 | title = Painted on 21st Street: Helen Frankenthaler Works at the Gagosian Gallery | date = 1 April 2013 | access-date = 16 June 2019 | work = Huffington Post | author = MutualArt }}
References
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Category:Abstract expressionism