Orange Hoop 1965

"Orange Hoop" by Helen Frankenthaler, it's an exploration in colour and form, likely made with thin washes of acrylic on canvas. I imagine Frankenthaler, stepping back, squinting, tilting her head as she worked on this, figuring out how to balance that big green shape, like a mountain or maybe a big hunk of jade, inside the loose orange hoop. The paint looks really thin, almost like watercolor. She's staining the canvas directly, letting the colours soak in and become part of the surface. The orange hoop is incomplete, like a suggestion of enclosure, and then there are those small yellow shapes at the bottom, anchoring the composition. Frankenthaler was always pushing the boundaries of abstraction, influenced by Pollock but finding her own voice. And you can see that here, in her willingness to let the paint flow and the colours mingle. Artists, we're all in this ongoing conversation, and each painting is a new way of seeing and feeling.