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Soak-Stained Landscapes

Featuring Helen Frankenthaler's Round Trip, 1979

Helen Frankenthaler (American, 1928–2011). Round Trip, 1957. Oil on canvas support: 70 1/4 x 70 1/4 inches (178.435 x 178.435 cm). Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York; Gift of James I. Merrill, 1958 (RCA1958:1). © Estate of Helen Frankenthaler / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Lesson Plan Details

  • Type:

    Collection

  • Grade Levels:

    Grades 6–8, Grades 9–12

  • Project Type:

    Traditional 2D

  • Art Movement:

    Abstract Expressionism

  • Art Content:

    Meaningful Making

  • Geographic Location:

    North America

  • Learning Standards:

    College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Language, College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Reading, College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Speaking and Listening, College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Writing, New York State Standards for the Arts

  • Interdiscplinary Connections:

    Mathematical Practice

Conceptual Basis

Inspired by childhood travel, Helen Frankenthaler transformed real and imagined landscapes into deep abstract paintings in which elements of nature became organic shapes and rich fields of color. Frankenthaler created these shapes and colors using her own soak-stain technique, which consists of pouring thinned paint onto large, untreated canvases, thereby staining the canvases with color.

View and Download Lesson Plan (PDF)

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Cover of the book Giving Up One's Mark: Helen Frankenthaler in the 1960s and 1970s

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