Sure Violet
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View on museum website →Medium
Twelve-color etching, aquatint, and drypoint on TGL hand-made paper
Dimensions
sheet: 78.7 x 109.2 cm (31 x 43 in.) framed: 88.6 x 119.1 cm (34 7/8 x 46 7/8 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Louis J. Hector
Accession Number
1983.113.1
Art Historical Context
Helen Frankenthaler's *Sure Violet* (1979) is a vibrant example of the artist's mastery in printmaking, expanding her renowned color-field abstractions into intricate multi-color editions. Created as a twelve-color etching,atint, and dry on luxurious TGL hand-made paper this large-scale work (sheet: 78.7 x 109.2 cm) showcases Frankenthaler's signature to saturated hues and fluid. A second-generation Abstractist, she pioneered thesoak-stain" in painting during the 0s, and here translates that innovation to print, layering translucent colors to evoke atmospheric depth and emotional resonance. P...
About the Artist
Helen Frankenthaler
Helen Frankenthaler (1928–2011) was born in New York City into a cultivated family; her father was a justice of the New York Supreme Court. She studied painting at the Dalton School under the Mexican muralist Rufino Tamayo and went on to Bennington College in Vermont, graduating in 1949. Returning to New York, she entered the circle of the Abstract Expressionist painters and studied with Hans Hofm...