Cape, (Provincetown)
(1964)
Medium
synthetic polymer paint and resin on canvas
Measurements
278.5 × 237.2 cm
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased with the assistance of the National Gallery Society of Victoria, 1967
© Estate of Helen Frankenthaler/ARS, New York. Licensed by Copyright Agency, Australia
Gallery location
Gallery 11
Level 2, NGV Australia
About this work
After seeing an exhibition of Jackson Pollock’s paintings, in 1952 Helen Frankenthaler abandoned easel painting in favour of working with large, unprimed canvases on the floor, using her whole body to paint. Frankenthaler also developed a technique of working with thinned acrylic paint that enabled the image to sink into the canvas. This resulted in paintings with a flat, stained appearance that made the relationship between the elements of her composition ambiguous. Frankenthaler painted Cape, (Provincetown) at her summer studio on the coast of Massachusetts where she worked from 1961 to 1969. In 1968, Frankenthaler described painting ‘abstract pictures but taken from nature … I would stand out on the porch and do the [Cape Cod] Bay … I didn’t want the Bay that much in perspective. I wanted it to be a little flat, parallel in relation to the canvas itself’.
Artwork Details
Place/s of Execution
Provincetown, Massachusetts, United States
Accession Number
1773-5
Department
International Painting
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Dame Carol Colburn-Grigor CBE through Metal Manufactures Limited
Subjects (general)
Abstract Art
Subjects (specific)
amorphous blue colours brush strokes geometric abstraction irregular lines (artistic concept) Provincetown (inhabited place) United States (nation)
Movements
Abstract Expressionism Colour-field