Thirty years ago, when I met the abstract painter, Helen Frankenthaler, I was aware that I was a young woman standing before a legend.
The art gallery where I worked sent me to deliver a painting to her. Ms. Frankenthaler introduced herself warmly while she scanned me head to toe; I felt she saw right through me. And although I didn’t think I had the right to believe so, she felt familiar to me as well.
She spoke in strong statements and direct questions. While our conversation seemed harmless enough, I had the sense she was about to tell me my own secrets.
“What sign are you?” she asked, out of the blue.
“Sagittarius,” I replied.
Apparently our birthdays were one day apart.
“Ah, I thought so,” she pronounced. And then I saw a wistful smile and sad eyes transform her expression as she said without further elaboration, “How we love and how we suffer.”
Suzanne DeChillo/The New York Times
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Helen Frankenthaler is one of my all time heroine artists. Her color sense is fresh and unpredictable. When I'm stuck on what to do for a color palette, I turn to her artworks for inspiration. I am drooling with envy (and paint) that you met and spoke with her. What a treat of a life time. Thanks for sharing.
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ReplyDeleteIt was a wonderful treat to meet her. 30 years later and the memory is still as fresh as one of her paintings.
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