''Mountains and Sea'' is a 1952 painting by American

abstract expressionist Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York City in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York at the center of th ...

painter

Helen Frankenthaler Helen Frankenthaler (December 12, 1928 – December 27, 2011) was an American abstract expressionist painter. She was a major contributor to the history of postwar American painting. Having exhibited her work for over six decades (early 1950s u ...

. Painted when Frankenthaler was 23 years old, it was her first professionally exhibited work. Though initially panned by critics, ''Mountains and Sea'' later became her most influential and best known canvas.

Background

In 1950, Frankenthaler was exposed to the work of

Jackson Pollock Paul Jackson Pollock (; January 28, 1912August 11, 1956) was an American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionism, abstract expressionist movement. He was widely noticed for his "Drip painting, drip technique" of pouring or splas ...

for the first time during an exhibition at the

Betty Parsons Gallery Betty Parsons (born Betty Bierne Pierson, January 31, 1900 – July 23, 1982) was an American artist, art dealer, and collector known for her early promotion of Abstract Expressionism. She is regarded as one of the most influential and dynamic f ...

where several of Pollock's paintings, ''Autumn Rhythm, Number 30, 1950'' (1950), and ''Number One,1950 (Lavender Mist)'' (1950), were displayed. She was intrigued by the idea of painting a canvas lying flat on the floor, and would later employ that technique for ''Mountains and Sea''. In the summer of 1952, Frankenthaler went on a road trip to

Cape Breton Island Cape Breton Island (french: link=no, île du Cap-Breton, formerly '; gd, Ceap Breatainn or '; mic, Unamaꞌki) is an island on the Atlantic coast of North America and part of the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. The island accounts for 18. ...

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

, during which she painted landscapes there using foldable easel equipment. ''Mountains and Sea'' was painted after this trip, and while the painting is not a direct depiction of a coastline in Nova Scotia, it contains elements that suggest a kind of seascape or landscape, like the strokes of blue that join with areas of green.

Description

The ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' described ''Mountains and Sea'' as, "a light-struck, diaphanous evocation of hills, rocks and water," and the artist herself later said the canvas, "look to many people like a large paint rag, casually accidental and incomplete.” To create ''Mountains and Sea'', Frankenthaler placed an unprimed canvas directly onto the floor and stained color directly onto it by diluting oil paint with turpentine and allowing the colors to bleed. It was the first time she used this stain technique.

Influence

''Mountains and Sea'' is considered an important precursor to color field painting and has been described as, "the

Rosetta stone The Rosetta Stone is a stele composed of granodiorite inscribed with three versions of a decree issued in Memphis, Egypt, in 196 BC during the Ptolemaic dynasty on behalf of King Ptolemy V Epiphanes. The top and middle texts are in Anci ...

of color-field." The canvas's impact on the color field movement has been compared to the importance of

Claude Monet Oscar-Claude Monet (, , ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of impressionist painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During ...

's '' Impression, Sunrise'' to the Impressionist movement.

Morris Louis Morris Louis Bernstein (November 28, 1912 – September 7, 1962), known professionally as Morris Louis, was an American painter. During the 1950s he became one of the earliest exponents of Color Field painting. While living in Washington, D. ...

, an abstract expressionist painter and a contemporary of Frankenthaler, described the painting as, "a bridge between Pollock and what was possible." The 1980 BBC series ''

100 Great Paintings ''100 Great Paintings'' is a British television series broadcast in 1980 on BBC 2, devised by Edwin Mullins.http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/series/11652 13 January 2007 He chose 20 thematic groups, such as war, the ...

'' featured ''Mountains and Sea''. The painting is on extended loan to the

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of ch ...

in Washington, D.C.

References

Abstract expressionism 1952 paintings Collections of the National Gallery of Art Paintings by Helen Frankenthaler Paintings in Washington, D.C. {{20C-painting-stub