38 Quotes by Helen Frankenthaler

In relations with people, as in art, if you always stick to style, manners, and what will work, and you’re never caught off guard, then some beautiful experiences never happen.

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.

Art has a will of its own. It has nothing to do with the taste of the moment or what’s expected of you. That’s a formula for dead art, or fashionable art.

A really good picture looks as if it’s happened at once. It’s an immediate image.

What concerns me when I work, is not whether the picture is a landscape, or whether it’s pastoral, or whether somebody will see a sunset in it. What concerns me is – did I make a beautiful picture?

I wanted things that I couldn’t at times articulate.

I’ve explored a variety of directions and themes over the years. But I think in my painting you can see the signature of one artist, the work of one wrist.

I don’t resent being a female painter. I don’t exploit it. I paint.

The price for living the life I have – for any serious, devoted person, is that at times one must live alone, or feel alone. I think loneliness is associated in many people’s minds when they think about success.