Great Meadows (recto); Untitled (Landscape) (verso)

1945–1949

Bennington College: Paul Feeley

She studies at Bennington College in Vermont and, until her graduation in 1949, works under Paul Feeley, who is credited with helping her understand pictorial composition and with influencing her early style derived from Cubism; during the non-resident term she studies privately with the Australian-born painter Wallace Harrison.

1950

Meets Clement Greenberg

She meets the critic Clement Greenberg; they have a five-year relationship, and through him she is introduced to the New York art scene — in 1964 he will include her in the exhibition “Post-Painterly Abstraction”.

1950

Pollock’s show at the Betty Parsons Gallery

She sees a Jackson Pollock show for the first time, at the Betty Parsons Gallery: “Autumn Rhythm”, “Number 30, 1950” and “Lavender Mist” impress her so much that she recalls wanting to live in that world and master its language. Other accounts date the show to 1951; after it she adopts Pollock’s method of laying the canvas out on the studio floor.

autumn 1951

First solo exhibition at Tibor de Nagy

Frankenthaler’s first solo exhibition takes place in the fall of 1951 at the Tibor de Nagy Gallery in New York.

1952

The “Mountains and Sea” exhibition launches her career

The exhibition of “Mountains and Sea” launches her official career as a painter; throughout the 1950s her compositions tend to be centred.

1953

Louis and Noland see “Mountains and Sea”

Kenneth Noland and Morris Louis see “Mountains and Sea”, which Louis later calls a bridge between Pollock and what was possible.