Conversations with Artists: Helen Frankenthaler

Helen Frankenthaler’s use of radiant color and her capacity to manipulate a rich variety of materials and print processes have been widely admired throughout her career. Helen Frankenthaler: Prints, a survey exhibition on view at the National Gallery of Art from April 18 to September 6, 1993, consisted of 77 prints and related drawings from the Gallery’s holdings, and loans from the artist's archive and other collections. The exhibition started with Frankenthaler’s very first print (1961), composed of calligraphic marks on an open field, and it closed with one of her most recent works (1992), an expansive composition of densely layered forms. In honor of the exhibition, Helen Frankenthaler discusses the distinctive nature of her working process with Ruth Fine in this conversation recorded on May 16, 1993.