Frankenthaler: The Printmaker

The Printmaker, is a survey of Helen Frankenthaler's printmaking practice. Celebrated for her role in the development of Color Field painting, Helen Frankenthaler (1928–2011) was also a groundbreaking printmaker. Over five decades, she transformed the possibilities of the medium, bringing to printmaking the same spirit of experimentation, boldness, and lyricism that defined her paintings. This exhibition traces Frankenthaler’s journey through print—from her early intaglio works of the 1960s to her lush woodcuts and monotypes of the 1990s and 2000s. Working in close collaboration with master printers at renowned studios such as Universal Limited Art Editions (ULAE), Tyler Graphics, and Mixografia, Frankenthaler expanded the visual language of printmaking, embracing process and material with uncommon freedom. 

The exhibition aligns with a broader institutional reassessment of Frankenthaler’s contributions to printmaking, complementing recent in-depth presentations such as Radius: Helen Frankenthaler Prints in Context at the Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, and “What If I Did This?”: Helen Frankenthaler in the 20th-Century Print Ecosystem at the Syracuse University Art Museum. Together, these exhibitions underscore the renewed scholarly and curatorial attention to Frankenthaler’s vital role in shaping the trajectory of postwar American printmaking.

"I want to draw my own images, mix my own colors, approve of registration marks, select paper—all the considerations and reconsiderations.  Assuming that those who work in the workshop are all artists at what they do, I can then entrust the actual duplicating process to other hands that possess—hopefully—their kind of magic.  Sharing and participating to the end." - Frankenthaler, 1977