Dancing Through Fields of Color: The Story of Helen Frankenthaler

As a child, Helen Frankenthaler, an Abstract Expressionist who created the Color Field painting movement, shirked rules in favor of free expression. “Instead of going to bed, Helen filled the sink with water. She dribbled in drops of ruby red nail polish and watched the color flow.” With sweeping strokes, Sicuro conveys the young artist’s joy in the act of creation, her images of seaside landscapes spilling off the canvasses, and waves trailing from the beach she’s painting into her bedroom. Following her father’s death when she was 11, “her canvases remained blank, her world of colors and light...dark,” Frankenthaler attends art school, where she adheres to rigid expectations. But the work of Jackson Pollock reawakens her, liberating her to paint emotively. Back matter provides biographical content, insight into Frankenthaler’s creative process, and an art activity. Ages 4–8.[em] (Mar.) [/em]