A biography for Helen Frankenthalerhasn’t been written yet.
“The question of sex will take care of itself.”
“You have to know how to use the accident, how to recognise it, how to control it, and ways to eliminate it so that the whole surface looks felt and born all at once.”
“There are no rules. That is how art is born, how breakthroughs happen. Go against the rules or ignore the rules. That is what invention is about.”
“We would sift through every inch of what it was that worked, or if it didn't, and wonder what was effective in it, in terms of paint, the subject matter, the size, the drawing.”
“I wanted things that I couldn't at times articulate.”
“The landscapes were in my arms as I did it.”
“One really beautiful wrist motion, that is synchronised with your head and heart, and you have it. It looks as if it were born in a minute.”
“Whatever the medium, there is the difficulty, challenge, fascination and often productive clumsiness of learning a new method: the wonderful puzzles and problems of translating with new materials.”
“A really good picture looks as if it's happened at once. It's an immediate image.”