
Helen Frankenthaler
Painting History, Writing Painting
Alison Rowley(Author)
Bloomsbury Visual Arts (Publisher)
Will be published approx. on 13. June 2024
Book
Paperback/Softback
184 pages
978-1-350-29703-6 (ISBN)
Description
This ground-breaking and extraordinary examination of the work of Abstract Expressionist painter Helen Frankenthaler overturns assumptions about the artist, whose work has been burdened by its label as 'the bridge between Pollock and what was possible'. Trained as a painter, Alison Rowley brings a keen eye to Frankenthaler's paintings, returning to the fore the artist's debt not only to Jackson Pollock but also to Cezanne, and speculating for the first time as to her artistic responses to wider political events, in particular the Rosenberg trial.
Making a fascinating case, too, for the connections between the 'breakthrough' work Mountains and Sea and Lily Briscoe's painting in Virginia Woolf's novel To the Lighthouse, this beautifully written book provides crucial insights into Frankenthaler's practice.
With her bold and radical painting now appearing in major international exhibitions, this paperback re-issue of Rowley's original 2007 study comes at a significant moment of reappraisal, and confirms Frankenthaler's status as one of the most important artists of her generation.
Making a fascinating case, too, for the connections between the 'breakthrough' work Mountains and Sea and Lily Briscoe's painting in Virginia Woolf's novel To the Lighthouse, this beautifully written book provides crucial insights into Frankenthaler's practice.
With her bold and radical painting now appearing in major international exhibitions, this paperback re-issue of Rowley's original 2007 study comes at a significant moment of reappraisal, and confirms Frankenthaler's status as one of the most important artists of her generation.
Reviews / Votes
By offering a profound re-viewing and perceptive contextualisation of two of Helen Frankenthaler's seminal paintings from the 1950s: Mountain and Sea and Eden, Alison Rowley expands feminist scholarship and challenges the established canon of modernist art history. Grounded in the author's deep intellectual curiosity and her intimate comprehension of the creative process, the production of knowledge and the formation of subjectivity, the book stimulates new and nuanced insights into the practice and life of one of the major American postwar painters. This re-engagement with Frankenthaler's work is critical reading for anyone interested in the writing of art history. * Kerstin Mey, Professor of Visual Culture, University of Limerick, Ireland * Working with a painter's visual acuity and imagination, Alison Rowley makes links across chronologies, art forms, and continents, which she then explores in forensic detail and lucid language. This book demonstrates why Helen Frankenthaler's work both demands close attention from a feminist standpoint, and why the discipline of Art History alone is insufficient for it. * Hilary Robinson, Professor of Feminism, Art, and Theory, Loughborough University, UK *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
College/higher education
Illustrations
16 colour and 20 bw illus
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
454 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-350-29703-6 (9781350297036)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Alison Rowley has held academic positions at the Universities of Leeds, Ulster and Huddersfield, UK. She has published on the work of Chantal Akerman, Trinh T. Minh-Ha, and Martha Rosler.
Content
Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Preface
1. Mountains and Sea: Cezanne's Country in New York and Nova Scotia
2. 1927: Other Countries, Other Cezannes
3. A Spatial Feeling Connected with Landscapes
4. Something New in Terms of Nature
5. A Painting of the Rosenberg Era
6. Eden: Et in Arcadia Ego
Post Factum
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgements
Preface
1. Mountains and Sea: Cezanne's Country in New York and Nova Scotia
2. 1927: Other Countries, Other Cezannes
3. A Spatial Feeling Connected with Landscapes
4. Something New in Terms of Nature
5. A Painting of the Rosenberg Era
6. Eden: Et in Arcadia Ego
Post Factum
Notes
Bibliography
Index