Dawn After the Storm

Frankenthaler was one of the most important practitioners of color-field painting, a movement known for its pioneering use of synthetic paint often applied to canvas by dripping or soaking the cloth in pigment. Her experiments with staining techniques aroused the interest of artists Morris Louis (see 67.632) and Kenneth Noland (see 1979.488) when they visited her studio in 1953. The two artists were so impressed by Frankenthaler's work that they both took up her experimentation with color-field painting themselves. Throughout this painting, highly thinned alkyd paint that has soaked into the canvas contrasts with intentional splatters and with thicker areas of oil paint applied with a brush (see the red-orange shape in the center and the looping blue lines at the left). While there are still suggestions of imagery in the upper part of the work, the lower part is purely abstract and shows the beauty and fascination that staining can create, incorporating the exposed canvas into the composition.