Seeing the Moon on a Hot Summer Day 1987

Helen Frankenthaler made this abstract work, Seeing the Moon on a Hot Summer Day, with the medium of lithography. Frankenthaler was an American abstract expressionist painter active in post-war USA. The abstract expressionists aimed to spontaneously express inner emotion through non-representational painting. This particular work’s title contrasts with its non-figurative style, suggesting that natural imagery is being communicated by more than just the representation of things. A key influence on Frankenthaler was critic Clement Greenberg. Greenberg thought paintings should be self-referential, celebrating their medium instead of representing outside things. His theory became institutionalized in art schools of the time, and helped shape Frankenthaler's practice. To understand work like this, we need to consider the institutional and theoretical contexts within which it was made. Art journals, biographies and critical texts all help us in doing this. This way, we can understand better how art and institutions influence one another.