Artist, Helen Frankenthaler: I’m concerned with being myself, getting to know more and more what is possible. It isn’t that I want to experiment with style. I often want to experiment with the different ways I know myself.
Curator, Samantha Friedman: What I love about this statement is how Frankenthaler distinguishes style—something more superficial—from the “different ways I know myself,” which is, of course, something much deeper. Her paintings arise because of who she is, and that’s something that’s always changing.
At this moment in the ‘80s, her approach becomes somewhat more reflective. She embarks on a series of paintings that have a darker, more mysterious quality, like this painting, Toward Dark. There’s a subtle, understated palette, one that makes a great use of black. But surprises jump out. There’s this small patch of yellow at the bottom left, and then there’s this deep red that’s almost hiding at the far right side of the canvas.
Frankenthaler has spoken multiple times about the arc of her career, and emphasized both the individuality of each particular painting, but also what ties them together.
Helen Frankenthaler: I’ve been very moved, myself, by the continuity that an artist projects throughout a lifetime, that there’s a basic vocabulary, and within that, a lot of risks, a lot of hurt, a lot of joy, a lot of catharsis, a lot of guilt. And a lot of bad pictures and a lot of radiant pictures.
Archival audio from: Oral history interview with Helen Frankenthaler, 1968. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution; and CBS Sunday Morning, 1984 September 16.