Flirt 1995

Curator: This is Helen Frankenthaler's "Flirt," completed in 1995. Frankenthaler worked in acrylic and ink to create this painting. Editor: It evokes a landscape, maybe a beach at sunrise. I find it gentle, washed out in pink. The splashes of colour, those gestural lines, disrupt the calm though. Curator: The pink definitely sets a specific mood. It resonates with associations of femininity, youth, even innocence, culturally speaking. However, look at the other colours introduced and see what kind of tension Frankenthaler creates with their addition. Editor: There's a loose structure with the darker masses acting as anchors. I can see a clear horizon with those gestural ink lines separating what feels like earth and sky. The eye is free to wander but is always pulled back to this underlying geometry. Curator: Abstraction allows for a multitude of interpretations. A 'flirt' can imply playfulness and that certainly shines through, but might there also be some element of danger and even harm inherent in it? These elements, and their effects on others, can also become abstract. Editor: The title certainly shifts how I read it. I suppose I'm seeing how it both obscures and reveals. These translucent veils of paint feel almost performative, like the concealing nature of flirtation itself. It keeps shifting on you! Curator: The artist brings personal symbolic weight. The forms, like archetypes in the collective consciousness, shift with time. The enduring interest lies in the personal language and historical conversation being expressed here. Editor: Yes, ultimately the painting uses its own vocabulary to enact meaning. The materials become symbols in themselves. This brief journey has taught me that sometimes you must give over to what a painting shows and tells you rather than what you initially anticipate.