Erica Nina M.

Maderal 12-Benjamin

Mountain and Sea by Helen Frankenthaler

 By the 1950s, the Abstract Expressionists had firmly taken over the
imagination of the art world. Everywhere, artists were striving to connect
with the primeval self, the unconscious mind, and the hidden imagery of the
subconscious. In the midst of this fervor emerged a trend toward calmness,
born partially from a growing interest among many artists in Eastern
philosophies like Taoism and Zen Buddhism. One of the most profound
movements to grow out of this time was an Abstract painting style known
as Color Field Painting.

The objective of Color Field Painting, as it has come to be generally

understood, was to explore color independently from subject matter, form,
line, and the other constraints of image making. A meditative quality was
sought by the painters, and if successful was subsequently transferred from
the work to its viewers.

The Abstract painter Helen Frankenthaler was one of the most

profound voices of the Color Field movement. With her painting Mountains
and Sea, painted in 1952, Frankenthaler introduced the world to a new
technique of painting she had invented called the “soak-stain process.” In
this process, Frankenthaler used turpentine to thin the consistency of her
paints. She delicately poured the thinned paint onto an unprimed canvas on
the floor, allowing the paint to completely soak through the canvas, giving
the work an entirely new texture and appearance. The soak-stain process
created sublime fields of color that took on organic, morphing
configurations touching on the serene. Frankenthaler’s Mountains and
Sea is considered to have been one of the first successes of the Color
Field Movement, and remains one of its most endearing images today.