?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 40,000 - $ 60,000
HELEN FRANKENTHALER Hermes.
Color Mixografía on white handmade paper, 1989. 1118x2337 mm; 44x92 inches (sheet), full margins. One of 12 numbered artist's proofs, aside from the edition of 50. Signed, dated, inscribed "AP" and numbered 8/12 in pencil, lower right. Printed by Luis Remba, Mixografía, Los Angeles. Published by Mixografía, Los Angeles. A superb impression of this large print, with strong colors.
According to Harrison, "Frankenthaler began working with Mixografía in Los Angeles in December 1986. For the process of Mixografía, created by Luis Remba, director of the workshop [along with his wife Lea Remba and the Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo in 1973], an artist must first make a maquette, from which a copper plate is then made in the negative. Once the copper plate is inked, moist handmade paper is laid on top and placed in a press with extreme vertical pressure, thus forming a sheet of paper with the ink infused in its surface. The molds or maquettes can be made from a variety of materials . . . Guadalupe (Harrison 164) and Hermes are melted wax images over wax plates, materials that create a smooth ground for the large planes of color to play off.
Frankenthaler initially created eight molds, from which she chose five to make the [Mixografía] editions. The other three matrixes were discarded, though there are a few proofs remaining in Frankenthaler's archive. Once the molds were completed, Mixografía sent the artist a number of un-inked white sheets formed from her copper plates. She used these to create nine monoprints by hand, working the surface with paint and pastel (Harrison 155-163). Although unlike any of the final edition [Mixografía] prints, these pieces helped Frankenthaler to adjust to the new medium and to develop her ideas." Harrison 166.
