In the summer of 1950, Helen Frankenthaler attended Hans Hofmann’s painting school near Provincetown, a coastal town in Massachusetts. Plein air painting (painting in the open air) was an important part of the course and Frankenthaler painted from the veranda, capturing the view of the harbour in a lyrical, impressionistic abstraction. She constructs different sections of the harbour view with thinly drawn grey lines and lets the watercolours seep into the paper. She transferred this technique to her abstract, large-format paintings with oil paint on canvas in the 1950s. Painted just one year before her first solo exhibition, Provincetown Harbor is a fine example of Helen Frankenthaler’s early artistic work.
Helen Frankenthaler (1928–2011)
Provincetown Harbor, 1950
Currently exhibited: Yes (Gallery: Painting as a Home)
Material: Watercolor on paper
Size: 62.9 x 48.9 cm
Inv-Nr.: B_359
Image rights: VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn; Copyright: Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, New York
Keywords:
Previous owner: Jenny and Clement Greenberg Collection, New York; private collection
Acquisition: Reinhard Ernst Collection, Christie’s, New York, 2016
Solo exhibitions:
2019
‘Abstract Climates: Frankenthaler in Provincetown’, Provincetown Art Association and Museum (PAAM), Provincetown, Massachusetts; Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, New York
1981
‘Frankenthaler: The 1950s’, Rose Art Museum, Waltham, Massachusetts
Group exhibitions:
2011
‘The Tides of Provincetown: Pivotal Years in America’s Oldest Continuous Art Colony 1899–2011’, New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, Connecticut
1984
‘The Innovative Landscape: New Approaches to an Old Tradition’, Holly Solomon Gallery, New York, USA
Painted just one year before her first solo exhibition, Provincetown Harbor is a fine example of Helen Frankenthaler’s early artistic work. She met and fell in love with Clement Greenberg (1909-1994) in 1950 at the age of 21. Greenberg is today considered one of the most important art critics of the 20th century and one of the pioneers of Abstract Expressionism in the USA. He suggested to her that she take private lessons with Hans Hofmann, a first-generation artist of the New York School.
In the summer of 1950, Frankenthaler spent three weeks at his painting school near Provinceton, a coastal town in Massachusetts where an art colony had gathered around Hofmann. Plein air painting (painting in the open air) was an important part of his own artistic work and consequently of his teaching. Frankenthaler painted from the veranda, capturing the view of the harbour in a lyrical, impressionistic abstraction. She constructs different sections of the harbour view with thinly drawn grey lines and lets the watercolours seep into the paper. She transferred this technique to her abstract, large-format paintings with oil paint on canvas in the 1950s. The artist later said of Hans Hofmann that his praise helped her realise that she was on the right track with her art.
The importance of this work to the artist and her career is reflected in the fact that it remained in her personal collection for many years before she gave it to Jenny and Clement Greenberg. The Provincetown area became the favourite holiday destination of Helen Frankenthaler and her husband Robert Motherwell in the 1960s, and they spent almost every summer there from 1960 to 1969.
