Abstract Artist Helen Frankenthaler Dies At Age 83

The art world lost an important person today. Abstract painter Helen Frankenthaler died at the age of 83.

Born in a wealthy family, Helen was a New Yorker who was heavily influenced by Clement Greenberg (whom she had a personal relationship with), and Jackson Pollock. "In the early 1950s, Frankenthaler started painting with her canvasses flat on the floor after seeing Jackson Pollock do it. She liked the gesture and the attitude of working on the floor, she told NPR in 1988, "but I wanted to work with shapes in a very different way."-NPR News

Many Critics agreed that Helen's work was merely "pretty" and pleasing to the eye.."But Earl Powell, director of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., rejects that charge, by writing,"It is not cloying," Powell says. "It's not pretty in a pejorative sense. But it really rises to challenge the best work of her time."

Frankenthaler did not consider herself a Feminist, just an Abstract Expressionist Painter trying to make her way in the Art World dominated by Men.

Her creations will be that much more valuable, and her influence on art will be missed.

Lana Gomez

I love learning about other young artists ; particularly painters. Painting I feel, is becoming a lost art form. With technology tailoring creative minds to become Art Directors, Web Designers, or Advertising agents... "Painting" sometimes feels like its losing its influence on young people.

So, I was truly happy to come across upcoming PAINTER Lana Gomez. This abstract artist uses large canvases and fills them up with drippings and blotches of color. Her abstract work is sophisticated as it is chaotic. I love that.

She most recently had a showing at Roseark Gallery in West Hollywood and has a young following of admirers and celebrities clientele alike (Lindsay Lohan included).

Her work is to me inspiring, and a true testament that painting is still well alive and respected.

To visit her website, please click on the title of this post!

Whoa Baby! Warhol painting sells for $662K as Elizabeth Taylor auction continues

An Andy Warhol painting of Taylor sold for more than $662,000 at the auction in New York on Wednesday. The painting was part of Christie's auction house sale of items from the collection of the late actress, who starred in "National Velvet" and "Cleopatra."

All I can say is that's a nice chunk of change for the lithograph!!!