HELEN FRANKENTHALER AT GAGOSIAN GALLERY 2026

 

 

I got in under the wire to see the Helen Frankenthaler exhibition “The Moment and the Distance” - 22 paintings from 1960-1992 at Gagosian Gallery on 21st Street, which ended on July 2nd. Despite the intense heat, this was a show I would not miss, as I consider Frankenthaler a vicarious mentor and a major influence, along with Morris Louis, on my origins as an artist, particularly on my 1970s New Mexico poured paintings. I wrote to Frankenthaler when I came back east from New Mexico to NYC in the summer of 1969, asking if she would like an intern, and received a polite, scrawling handwritten letter on Robert Motherwell stationery saying she did not need anyone at that time.

This exhibition was a surprise - some disappointments with her late works and an exhilaration in seeing the earlier stained paintings  - the ones where her hand is not visible like a puppeteer overseeing some mysterious communion between the unprimed canvas and the paint that just appeared with a ghostlike freshness and freedom; for me it was like nothing I had ever seen before as if the paint and color were out of the artists' careful and calculating control. I felt a "thereness," and even though I still am not sure what is meant by that term, I still use that word to describe the exultation I felt.

Her colors invoke the light of time, melding and overlapping other hues through repeated pouring while allowing the rivulets of paint to flow on the canvas like gentle streams of water, sometimes dazzling or else hiding in the vast floodplains of seductive hues, giving me a feeling of unbridled abandonment.

Detail of painting above

I wish I had a checklist so I could reference titles, but I believe around the 1980’s Frankenthaler begins to bring her hand back into the work; there is a sensual desire to touch a painting with a brush or trowel or whatever means, constructing an extrusion of texture and gesture. There is a large white painting that I thought was extremely compelling, beautifully constructed and now burrowed into my being  - a work which my mind and heart will not relinquish, showing what Frankenthaler accomplished when she became the author of experimentation and development.

On the other hand, in the 1990s some of the paintings reveal a woman who was trying to work with new ideas by looking at the past and her contemporaries. Some of the works reminded me of Adolph Gottlieb, Richard Diebenkorn, and Hans Hoffman. Static squares and rectangles and blobby circles seem arbitrary and do not speak to one another but float aimlessly over her color grounds. No longer did the forms bob and weave, but rather felt contrived, sensing that they struggled to move and were locked into position.  And then, to my delight, a painting appears that has the complexity/simplicity and passion of a wonderful work of art. 

I am so fortunate that I was able to see this show, though the artworks are just a glimpse of what Helen Frankenthaler has accomplished. And of course, the importance of her influence on many younger artists who were able to feel the immediacy of great paintings.

                                      Detail of above painting

JESSOR - EXHIBITION OF ARCHITECT HERMAN JESSOR AT CITYGROUP OPENING MARCH 19-MAY 23, 2026.

 My father, Gerhard Graupe, was Chief Architect for many of the Projects that Herman Jessor worked on, including Penn Station South, The Amalgamated, Co-Op City, Starrett City, etc. 

I want and am determined that his life's work not be overlooked, as my father proudly labored day and night to create designs for affordable Cooperative Housing in NYC. I include the Press Release for the exhibition at Citygroup Architectural Collective on the Lower East Side, 104b Forsyth St., NYC.

Opening is March 19th at 6 pm.

THE GILDED AGE on HBO 2/12/26

I never thought that I would be interested in watching an HBO series titled THE GILDED AGE, taking place in the late 1880s, situated in fashionable mansions, on cobblestone streets of NYC, where the fierce determination and manipulations of business tycoons compete and conjoin for control of industry, mining, railroad expansions, etc., in an era of unlimited, unregulated possibilities. Class hierarchy, social standing, and lineage determine who is accepted into NY’s “high society”; being challenged by new money “nouveau riche” interlopers whose personal and cultural maneuvering is creating upheaval among the established society. 

This series successfully probes issues of homophobia, race, and ethnic malignancy, as well as the awakening of women to the Suffragette Movement, raising awareness of rights that have been denied women in marriage, divorce, and every aspect of their lives. 

Visually, the costumes and settings are lavish; the New York City Mansions exhibit extraordinary architectural detail, and spaces are inhabited by ornate dresses that seduce with their delectability of color and style. 

 Within this milieu we are introduced to the Van Rhijn family, two sisters - one who, when we first meet is considered a “spinster” ( beautifully acted with a lovely delicacy) by  Cynthia Nixon (Ada) the antithesis of her formidable, adhering to the “rules of etiquette” outspoken sister, superiorly acted by Christine Baranski (Agnes) a forceful presence straddling the old and new eras, timorously enveloped by it with an awakening humility. Her son, considered by his mother to be a ne’er-do-well, Oscar is one of the most tragic characters in THE GILDED AGE, oppressed by the secret of his passionate attachment and love for another man - a touching and heartrending relationship.

THE GILDED AGE focus is also on the younger,  ambitious, arriviste Russell family. Carrie Coon plays Bertha Russell, married to George, a ruthless Railroad Magnate. Mrs.Russell, akin to a mole, laboriously spends her time digging her way into the pinnacle of NY society, which years earlier would have excluded and disdained her from entering. Her opportunism and aspirations to be a leading member of the elite blind Bertha to the desires and needs of her family. The steps up to the throne of high society are strewn with the tears and heartache of self-absorptive narcissism.

Also of genuine interest are the layers of status in the African-American Scott family. The compassionate, perceptive daughter Peggy Scott (sensitively acted by Denée Benton) is an aspiring writer and journalist, living with the Van Rhijn family as a secretary to one of the sisters and friends with their tender niece Marion, who is also featured in the series. Peggy's life and loves create divisions and loving beneficence within the black social set, though the ever-present scourge of racism blankets their lives, no matter how insulated they believe they have become.

What makes THE GILDED AGE so compelling is that many of the issues are as prevalent today, 150 years later, as mankind seems to wallow in the muck of greed, race, and class division. We are familiar with today’s “barons” of technology colliding with one another, envisioning a future where the personal profiteering of the few will still reign.

THE GILDED AGE  series has completed three seasons and continues on HBO for another season soon..