As a second-generation Abstract Expressionist, Helen Frankenthaler often had to emphasise how her practice differed from that of her predecessors. This was especially true when it came to Jackson Pollock, since they both used the same method of pouring paint onto the canvas, rather than brushing.

We love the way in which Frankenthaler elegantly defines her individuality in this quote:

‘I had no desire to copy Pollock…I needed something more liquid, watery, thinner. All my life, I have been drawn to water and translucency. I love the water; I love to swim, to watch changing seascapes’.

'SEA' FOR YOURSELF
Our Abstract Expressionist show is on view until Saturday 27th April at our Maddox Street Gallery.

This exhibition explores the differences as well as similarities between works on paper by Frankenthaler and those of some of the most significant first and second-generation Abstract Expressionists, including Willem de Kooning, Robert Motherwell and Richard Diebenkorn.

HOW TO PAINT LIKE HELEN FRANKENTHALER

Frankenthaler’s characteristic ‘soak-stain’ technique is formed by allowing watered down or thinned acrylic paints to be poured freely onto un-primed canvas, permitting the colours to flow where they may, with an unpredictable, organic quality, just like a spring finding its way over fresh ground.

Discover more about how the artist used this same technique in her printmaking by visiting our Maddox Street Gallery - until Saturday 27th April.