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Spaightwood Galleries, Inc.

120 Main Street, Upton MA 01568-6193; 800-809-3343; email sptwd@verizon.net

Last updated 12-8-11
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Helen Frankenthaler (American, 1928-2011): Original prints

Frankenthaler Special / Womanshow 2000 / Six Women
Heroic Poetry: Brinkman / Frankenthaler / Miró / Mitchell / Motherwell / Nevelson / Tàpies
Helen Frankenthaler was one of the most important American artists from the early 1960s until her death in 2011. One of the early abstract expressionists, she was also a pioneer (along with Jules Olitski and Morris Louis) in the development of color-field painting. In addition to her achievements as a painter, she is also a major printmaker, whose works have been featured in many shows, including a print retrospective at the National Gallery of Art (memorialized in a catalogue published by the National Gallery) and was recently the subject of an important catalogue raisonné of her prints. For two of her recent prints, see Frankenthaler Special, which will take you to Southern Exposure, a 51-color screenprint that sold out the day it was offered to dealers and currently had a suggested retail price of $7500 on Lincoln Center's dealer's price list, following in the footsteps of Flirt, a 42-color screenprint published by Lincoln Center that sold out the day it was first offered to dealers and has since sold at auction for $9000 and $14,000 (we sold two impressions for under $5000 each when it first appeared), and Solar Imp, also published by Lincoln Center that also sold out on its release day to dealers; we have one left for $9000.

Selected Bibliography: General works: Julia Brown & Susan Cross, After Mountains And Sea: Frankenthaler 1956-1959 (NY: Guggenheim Museum, 1998); E.A. Carmean, Jr., Helen Frankenthaler: A Paintings Retrospective. NY: Harry N. Abrams, 1989 (This exhibition was organized by the Museum of Modern Art in Fort Worth, Texas and traveled to MOMA and three other locations); John Elderfield, Frankenthaler NY: Abrams, 1989; E. C. Goossen, Helen Frankenthaler. New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, 1969; Barbara Rose, Frankenthaler. NY Abrams, 1970; Karen Wilkin, Frankenthaler Works on Paper 1949-1984. New York: George Braziller, Inc. 1989.

Prints: Ruth E. Fine, Helen Frankenthaler: Prints. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Arts, 1993; Steve Afif, Helen Frankenthaler (Barcelona: Ediciones Poligrafa, S.A., 1988; Pegram Harrison, Frankenthaler: A Catalogue Raisonné. Prints 1961-1994. NY: Abrams, 1996; Thomas Krens, Helen Frankenthaler Prints: 1961-1979. NY: Harper & Row, 1980 (her first print catalogue raisonné, based upon a retrospective at Williams College).
Air Frame (Williams College 6). Original color screenprint, 1965. 200 signed & numbered impressions + 25 impressions H.C. for contributors (numbered A/Y-Y/Y) for the portfolio, New York Ten. A fresh impression of the artist's first serigraph. Small handling crease lower left corner otherwise very good condition. Image size: 558x430mm. Price: SOLD.
Spoleto (Harrison 37). Original 5-color silkscreen, 1972. 100 signed & numbered impressions on Arches published by the Spoleto Festival Foundation and printed by Patricia Yamashiro in NY. The work was commissioned for the Spoleto (Italy) Festival of the Two Worlds. There was also an unsigned poster with text. Image size: 1003x749mm (40"x30"); framed: 48x36 inches. Price: SOLD.
Cleveland Orchestra (Harrison 70, Williams College 68, Tyler 193). Original 8-color screenprint, 1978. 150 signed and numbered impressions (of which ours is n. 42/150) plus xxv signed and numbered artist's proofs on white Arches cover paper printed at Tyler Graphics in Bedford Village NY. This print was created as a fund-raiser for the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, whose logo is printed underneath Frankenthaler's signature. "To achieve the brushstroke marks that give the print its painterly quality, the artist drew directly on the screens with liquid tusche. This method of screenmaking allowed her the gestural freedom that is not available in either the hand-cut film process or the photo-stencil methods" (Williams College, p. 134). One of Frankenthaler'smost painterly prints. Image size: 560x760mm. Price: $6500.

See below for image as matted: by signing above the Cleveland Orchestra logo, Frankenthaler seems to acknowledge that some might prefer a logo-free view of the work.
Plaza Real. Original 7-color softground and hardground etching, 1987-88. 60 signed and numbered impressions on Rives plus xii artist's proofs. Included in the National Gallery of Art Print retrospective (Fine 66). This is one of Frankenthaler's most elegant and desirable prints. Image size: 724x886mm. Price: SOLD
Ramblas (Harrison 141, Afif Prints 3). Original 6-color etching, drypoint, and lithograph, 1987-88. Edition: 75 signed and numbered impressions on Rives (of which ours is n. 29/75) plus 16 artist's proofs and 2 printer's proofs. Image size: 870x686mm (34-1/2x27 inches). Price: $15,000.

In 1987 Frankenthaler acceptedd an invitation to come to Barcelona and work with master printer Joan de Muga at Ediciones Poligrafa. During a 10-day period Frankenthaler began 4 mixed-media works combining lithography (four aluminum plates) and etching and drpoint (one copper plate). Joan de Muga made 6 visits to Frankenthaler's studios in New York and Connecticut in the following months bringing proofs; Frankenthaler made corrections and gave precise instructions on the way she wanted them printed. The edition was printed after she was finally satisfied with all of her changes. The result is a large (we have it matted in a 44x36 inch museum-board mat), rich, complex, and beautiful work.The signed and numbered impressions were sold by Galeria Joan Prats; the artist's proofs were Frankenthaler's.
Solar Imp. Original 35-color silkscreen hand-screend at Brand-X Studios, March 2001. This work is based upon an acrylic painting also entitled Solar Imp painted in 2001. Edition: 126 signed and numbered impressions on Somerset Textured rag paper plus 18 artists proofs. Image size: 1000x762mm (40"x30"). Price: $9000.
Southern Exposure. Original 51-color silkscreen, hand-screened at Brand-X Studios, September, 2005. Edition: 128 signed and numbered impressions on Somerset Textured rag paper plus 18 artists proofs. Signed in the screen lower right, signed and numbered in pencil lower left. Image size: 774x940mm (approximately 30.5"x37). Price: SOLD.
Jennifer Bartlett, Louise Bourgeois, Jonna Rae Brinkman, Louisa Chase, Sue Coe, Lesley Dill, Helen Frankenthaler,
Jane Freilicher, Nancy Graves, Elaine de Kooning, Karen Kunc, Lee Krasner, Ellen Lanyon, Georgia Marsh,
Suzanne McClelland, Phyllis McGibbon, Joan Mitchell, Elizabeth Murray, Judith Murray, Joan Mitchell, Louise Nevelson,
Judy Pfaff, Joan Root, Susan Rothenberg, Betye Saar, Niki de St. Phalle, Hollis Sigler, Kiki Smith, Joan Snyder,
Pat Steir, May Stevens, Dorothea Tanning, and Emmi Whitehorse

Spaightwood Galleries, Inc.

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