“Weather Change” is a significant work by Helen Frankenthaler, created in 1963. This abstract painting is rendered in acrylic on canvas, showcasing the artist’s engagement with the Color Field Painting and Lyrical Abstraction movements. The artwork encapsulates Frankenthaler’s innovative approach to color and composition.
The artwork features expansive, flat areas of color that bleed and fuse into one another against a largely unpainted backdrop. The colors employed by Frankenthaler in “Weather Change” are vibrant and layered, exhibiting her characteristic “soak-stain” technique where thinned paint is applied to unprimed canvas, allowing the material to absorb the pigment, which creates a fluid, almost watercolor-like effect. The composition is non-representational, yet it suggests an atmospheric fluctuation as indicated by the title. By manipulating the canvas’s surface and the paint’s application, Frankenthaler invites viewers to experience an evocation of changing weather patterns through abstract means, opening up a space for emotional and sensorial interaction with the artwork.
