Helen Frankenthaler (1928–2011) began her artistic career in the 1950s as a member of the second generation of Abstract Expressionists. She attracted attention for her paintings employing the “soak-stain” technique, where she poured thinned-down oil paints onto a canvas without application of a sizing agent. Her works, in which spontaneous expansion of color surfaces generated remarkably original painted spaces, were highly acclaimed as superior examples of abstract Modernist paintings, and Frankenthaler left an indelible mark within the history of American art.
 
In the early 1960s, Frankenthaler began delving into lithograph production. From the outset, working at various studios she consistently poured passion into her printmaking, resulting in a plethora of true masterpieces. She employed virtually every printmaking technique conceivable―copperplate, woodblock, silkscreen, monotype―and in each area, she produced not only works of consummate technical proficiency, but also works opening up new technical horizons by dint of her unfettered, unconventional ideas. In the process, prints became a vital medium of expression for Frankenthaler, on a par with painting.
 
From 1977 onward especially―the year she began her collaborative productions at Tyler Graphics―Frankenthaler started creating a host of truly innovative works backed by this print studio’s exquisite technical skills. Her simultaneously delicate and bold forms and vibrantly colorful images of this period, employing diverse techniques, continue to captivate and enthrall us today.
 
The term “experimental impressions,” featured in the title of this exhibition, is taken from a series of monoprints created by Frankenthaler in 1978; but it also applies to the entire body of her prints, in which she always probed new possibilities in artistic expression. The exhibition, consisting of works gleaned from CCGA’s Tyler Graphics Archive Collection, brings together Helen Frankenthaler’s print works created in collaboration with Tyler Graphics over many years spanning from the 1970s into the new millennium. Visitors are sure to find them highly appealing.