{"id":3752,"date":"2025-03-26T15:24:03","date_gmt":"2025-03-26T15:24:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dartmagazine.com\/?p=3752"},"modified":"2025-03-31T14:02:22","modified_gmt":"2025-03-31T14:02:22","slug":"danielle-frankenthal-playing-with-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/?p=3752","title":{"rendered":"Danielle Frankenthal: Playing with Light"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by John Mendelsohn<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What need do we have for words when we have paintings, particularly the kind of lyrical and abstract works that Danielle Frankenthal offers us in her current exhibition? These are often extravagant, gestural works that are abundant in high color and visual movement. What challenges the writer is to order his thoughts about paintings that seems to ask us to forsake cognition in favor of pure sensation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Danielle
Danielle Frankenthal, Mist #2<\/em>,<\/strong> 2024, acrylic paint, oil stick on acrylic resin, 48 x 48 in.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But despite the pleasures of innocent, sensuous looking that these paintings afford, our enquiring mind is nonetheless activated. First, there is the question of the unusual support of these works \u2013 square sheets of clear acrylic resin that are joined into a single box. Acrylic paint and oil stick have been applied to the inner and outer surfaces of the plastic panels, resulting in a kind of painterly diorama or stage set that deploys multiple scrims. The effect is to deconstruct the traditional layering of a painting into discrete planes, that coalesce into a comprehensible, if unstable image. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Danielle
Danielle Frankenthal, L’Heure Bleu<\/strong><\/em>, 2023, acrylic paint, oil stick on acrylic resin, 50 x 50 in.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This effect of suspended marks is essential to these paintings, creating a kind of holographic presence in which the painted gestures shift from planar to dimensional space. Our second question is how this curious phenomenon is part of Frankenthal\u2019s expressive endeavor. The exhibition has work from two series, Clouds and Gardens<\/em>. The former benefits from the floating quality of the multiple planes of depths in the paintings, to evoke fugitive color and atmospheric vapors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Danielle
Danielle Frankenthal, L\u2019Apresmidi d\u2019une Faune<\/strong>, <\/em>(Diptych), 2024, acrylic paint, oil stick, metal gilding on acrylic resin, 50 x 50 in.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A prime example is Mist 2<\/em>, with its upper expanse the color of agitated fog, above a lower, coppery register. In the Clouds<\/em> paintings, at times light is conjured literally through the use of pearlescent and metallic pigments. The many qualities of light constitute a continual focus in Frankenthal\u2019s work, here intimating the diffused illumination of dawn. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A painting of the Gardens<\/em> series, L\u2019Apresmidi d\u2019une Faune<\/em>, is a diptych whose title simultaneously suggests the Mallarm\u00e9 poem, the Debussy symphonic work which it inspired, and the ballet of the same name by Nijinsky. The double painting repeats, with variations, a pastoral setting with a mottled sky, a gilded glow of light, and a violent red passage that suggest the satyr\u2019s sensual exploits. Leaping arabesques in black oil stick capture the sense of intoxicated dance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Danielle
Danielle Frankenthal, Garden 3<\/strong><\/em>, 2024, acrylic paint, oil stick on phosphorescent acrylic resin, 50 x 50 in.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Garden 3<\/em>, with its turbulent sky, rising land, and turquoise vegetation, is the most recognizable landscape of the series. It becomes a terra incognita by an overlay of wild, wind-blown lines and the use of phosphorescent acrylic resin. This glow-in-the-dark effect reminds us that this artist is both a seeker after original expression, and part of a lineage of painting that draws its inspiration from nature, stretching back to Monet, and moving forward through Joan Mitchell and Helen Frankenthaler. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Danielle Frankenthal: Playing with Light<\/em><\/strong>, Curated by Lilly Wei, through April 5, 2025, L\u2019SPACE Gallery, New York, 524 W. 19 St., New York, NY<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by John Mendelsohn What need do we have for words when we have paintings, particularly the kind of lyrical and abstract works that Danielle Frankenthal offers us in her current exhibition? These are often extravagant, gestural works that are abundant in high color and visual movement. What challenges the writer is to order his thoughts … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Danielle Frankenthal: Playing with Light”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3752"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3779,"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3752\/revisions\/3779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}