Abstract Expressionist Helen Frankenthaler Dies at 83

Helen Frankenthaler, a major contributor to American Abstract Expressionism, died Tuesday after suffering from a long illness at her home in Darien, Connecticut.

Helen is known for her master strokes and unique artworks. She launched her career with abstract expressionism in the year 1952.

Her paintings have often been featured in a number of contemporary museums and galleries, including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and the National Gallery of Art.

She is often credited with introducing a newer generation of the American post-World War II art movement, thereby providing crucial links between art styles. Of particular significance is her creation Mountains and Sea (1952) where she introduced a new staining technique which later became fundamental to Color Field paintings.

According to Bloomberg, Helene took her cues from Pollock and poured layers of turpentine-thinned oil paint on un-primed canvas, which she had laid directly on the studio floor.

Born in December 1928 to a respected New York State Supreme Court judge, Alfred Frankenthaler, Helen reportedly absorbed the privileged background of a cultured and progressive intellectual family that encouraged all three daughters to prepare themselves for professional careers. She married abstract painter Robert Motherwell in 1958 and later was associated with abstract art advocate Clement Greenberg.

Frankenthaler helped widen the range of acceptable ideas and techniques creating greater expressive freedom and bringing new depths to the evolution of American art.