Helen Frankenthaler

Helen Frankenthaler’s brief appearances in the diary are defined by a striking reversal: the diarist first condemns her as unpleasant and dismisses her work, then watches her acknowledge that she has been behaving badly and make a deliberate effort to be kind. These scenes place her within an elite art-world social circle while showing how quickly the diarist’s judgment of her can shift.

A hostile encounter in New York

On July 29, after The Pierre, the Oyster Bar at Grand Central, La Petite Marmite, and Woods were all found closed, the diarist and Jed Johnson went to La Relais. Helen Frankenthaler was there with a European gallery owner, among a group that included Charles Collingwood. Denise Hale was also present. When the diarist offered to introduce the two women, Frankenthaler replied with a cutting question about whether the introduction would thrill Denise Hale.

The conversation turned to a Washington party for artists whose work was in the vice president’s house. Asked whether she would attend, Frankenthaler said she would. The diarist then asked about a large silkscreen she had heard Frankenthaler made. Frankenthaler denied making silkscreens, then denied making multiples when the diarist tried to clarify. The exchange left the diarist confused about the work in question and reinforced an already hostile impression. The entry ends its assessment with a personal attack on Frankenthaler’s career and an outright dismissal of her work, presenting the diarist’s opinion rather than an independent judgment of her art.

The Washington dinner

A few days later, the diarist and Fred Hughes traveled to Washington for the gathering hosted by Joan and Fritz Mondale. The diarist noted that the hosts had few major artists present: Frankenthaler and the diarist were the two he singled out. He attributed his own invitation to the Southwest collection and to Blue Flowers, which had been included in a gift from Mrs. de Menil. In this setting, Frankenthaler was not merely an acquaintance at a restaurant but one of the few artists explicitly identified as a guest.

The Washington visit was marked by heat and stickiness, expensive travel, and a dinner the diarist found poor. The party took place in the same house the Rockefellers had occupied when they were vice presidents, though its former Max Ernst bed was no longer there. Frankenthaler remained part of the evening’s social scene; around ten, she passed a note asking whether the diarist and Fred Hughes wanted to leave. The detail sits amid the diary’s scrutiny of the tented dinner, its elaborate food, and its plentiful hard liquor, placing her within the group’s shared impatience with the occasion.

A change in manner

On the return to the hotel, the diarist had been telling Fred Hughes how awful Frankenthaler had been to him the previous weekend. Then Frankenthaler herself acknowledged that she had been awful lately, said she did not know what was wrong, and promised to be nice that night. The diarist records the change as immediate: she was nice. That turn complicates the earlier portrait without erasing it. Frankenthaler is still the same person the diarist had just condemned, but in this encounter she recognizes her behavior and chooses to act differently.

They had drinks together at the hotel. Fred Hughes was bored with Frankenthaler but paid for the drinks anyway. She spoke about her live-in maid, who wanted $300 for four days’ work; the diarist speculated that the maid might simply want to leave. Frankenthaler also said she had three or four people working for her. She disliked the wine, although Fred Hughes saw nothing wrong with it. These small details extend the scene beyond the apology: the diary records her domestic arrangements, her complaint, and the companions’ differing reactions, preserving the social texture of an evening that began in hostility and ended in conversation.