Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Helen Frankenthaler

I really liked her piece when I saw it in Fleming and I liked what the book had to say about her blotting acrylics as if they were watercolors. I was intrigued so I decided to look her up on google when I found this picture.

I didn't realize Frankenthaler worked in such large dimensions. Furthermore, in this picture, her painting style reminds me Pollock in that she physically gets in her paintings just because they are so large. Although she may not be classified as an action painter, she still has to become very physically involved with the piece as with Pollock.
To me her art is just as revolutionary as Pollock, yet I did not learn about her until this month whereas I've known about Pollock for some years now. Who or what determines what becomes such famous art?

4 comments:

alyb said...

I think that a lot of what determines a famous artist is the public's response to an artists work. I think that one of the reasons Pollock has remained so famous is that his art is very intriguing and interesting thus he remains relevant.

Ravin S said...

I think that the biggest factor that determines how popular an artist becomes is how wide the appeal of the work is to a mass audience. If people have to ask themselves if a painting is good, then the work won't become popular. People have to instantly recognize the talent of an artist and then it will become popular.

Christine Catinis said...

I had no idea it was so big! I think that people judge art on is aesthetic appearance rather than the meaning that the artist tried to convey through it.

sara pendleton said...

I really didn't know these were so gigantic! I don't know what makes art famous, I think some of it's luck and a lot of it's talent but I think if anybody really knew the answer there would be a lot more incredibly famous artist right now. (Personally I think that Pollock's work was really different than anything anybody ever saw before and that it doesn't hurt that he's kind of a character himself. Also all his stuff is recognizably his. which doesn't hurt either I think.) I love the giant canvasses by these two and the idea of crawling around in your own painting...