Painted on 21st Street: Helen Frankenthaler from 1950 to 1959

Helen Frankenthaler (1928–2011) came to New York City in 1949 at age 21 and created many of her most original paintings in the 1950s, in a studio on East 21st Street. This handsome book includes many superb reproductions of her paintings from the period and follows Gagosian Gallery’s spring 2013 exhibition of her ’50s work—the first time these paintings had been shown together in more than 40 years. An informative and thoughtful essay by Elderfield, chief curator emeritus of painting and sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art, introduces the collection, convincingly arguing that it’s crucial to go beyond painter Morris Louis’s description of Frankenthaler as “a bridge between Pollock and what was possible”; we must instead view her work as “its own destination,” he writes. A detailed, revealing, and richly illustrated chronology of Frankenthaler’s work from 1950–1959 prefaces the book’s most splendid section: 15 exquisite color reproductions of drawings and paintings that reveal the potency of her artistic imagination in color and form. Included are essays by Frank O’Hara and Carl Belz, who describes Frankenthaler’s 1950s paintings as exceptional and transcendent in quality. This beautiful, highly informative book will be of interest to both academics and general art enthusiasts. 104 illus. and 29 large color plates. (Sept.)