Alumni News
Paint As an Expression of Movement and Biology
"A Green Thought in a Green Shade: Paint As an Expression of Movement and Biology," an article by Gracie Yaconelli '26 about a painting by Helen Frankenthaler '49, has been published by the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation on Nowscape, an online publication dedicated to sharing news and research supported by the Foundation’s educational initiatives.
As part of the Creative Legacy Fellowship over the 2025 Field Work Term, Gracie Yaconelli '26 interned at the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, working in the archives helping document and process the Steven Sloman Photographic Materials, 1981-2002, an expansive collection of photographs pertaining to Frankenthaler's career.
Frankenthaler's painting "Green Thought in a Green Shade" is currently on view at Gagosian , as part of Helen Frankenthaler: The Moment and the Distance, until July 2.
Writes Yaconelli:
"Algal clouds of green saturate the canvas, dominating the visual field. In parts, the green is a weight: dark and condensed. In others, it reflects air: light and dispersed. I first came across Helen Frankenthaler’s A Green Thought in a Green Shade (1981) as I sorted through a box of photographer Steven Sloman’s color transparencies of her artwork. As I held the transparency before me, I knew I could sit in conversation with it for the remainder of the day if I wanted to. I felt a magnetic pull to carefully attend to each detail, as if noticing the features of a loved one. It was nothing short of transfixing."