Lilac Sweep

Considered by many to be one of the most important artists of her time, renowned painter Helen Frankenthaler created her print in 1961. She had already rocked the artworld with her “soak-stain” paintings – saturating unprimed canvases with paint thinned by turpentine, allowing for translucent brushstrokes of color. Adapting this technique to her printmaking allowed Frankenthaler to apply the same spontaneity integral in her paintings to her prints.

Over the next 17 years, Frankenthaler would become one of the most prolific printmakers of her generation, creating over 30 editioned prints and exploring mediums ranging from lithography to etching to woodcut.