Helen FrankenthalerAmerican, 1928–2011Sky Frame Orbit
May one see it?
Not receiving at present
Art Institute of Chicago
Chicago, United States
It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.
- Checked
- In this state since
- Source
- The museum
About the work
Sky Frame Orbit was only the second time Frankenthaler combined printing techniques (the first was Free Wheeling). The artist repurposed the trial proofs printed nine years earlier of Sky Frame’s blue lithographed frame, rotated them ninety degrees, and printed the new intaglio plate in the center. Frankenthaler had reworked the Sky Frame stone after these initial proofs were pulled, which is why Sky Frame Orbit’s edition size is small: the blue rectangle could not be reproduced in 1973.
Art Institute of ChicagoCC BY 4.0
Particulars
- Accession number
- 1982.487c
In the catalog
Sources
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Image: Art Institute of Chicago — © the artist or rights holder
Meanwhile, in the life of Helen Frankenthaler
The whole life1963
A switch to acrylic paints
From 1963 she uses acrylic paints rather than oils, because they allow for both opacity and sharpness on the canvas.
1964
The “Post-Painterly Abstraction” exhibition
Clement Greenberg includes her in the exhibition “Post-Painterly Abstraction”, which introduces a newer generation of abstract painting that comes to be known as colour field.
1968
The Temple Gold Medal
She receives the Temple Gold Medal of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia.
1969
Solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum
The Whitney Museum of American Art holds a solo exhibition of Frankenthaler’s work; it then travels to the Whitechapel Gallery in London, the Orangerie Herrenhausen in Hanover and the Kongresshalle in Berlin.
1971
Divorce from Robert Motherwell
Her marriage to Robert Motherwell, which began in 1958, ends in divorce; both born of wealthy parents, they were known as “the golden couple” for their lavish entertaining, and from the marriage Frankenthaler gained two stepdaughters, Jeannie and Lise.
1972
Mary Beth Edelson’s collage “Last Supper”
In Mary Beth Edelson’s collage “Some Living American Women Artists / Last Supper”, the heads of notable women artists, Frankenthaler among them, are placed over the heads of Christ and the apostles in Leonardo’s “Last Supper”; she herself does not consider herself a feminist and says that being a woman painter was never an issue for her.
