How a Moment of Crisis Led Helen Frankenthaler to Create an Iconic Artwork

Helen Frankenthaler came in to the studio at two in the afternoon, moaning and groaning. She had just rented this working space on West 23rd Street, a few blocks down the street from her London Terrace apartment. The studio was a quiet skylighted loft in the back of the building. A canvas lay on the floor before her. Inspired by the art of Jackson Pollock, whose drip paintings she had first encountered some two years before, she set to work.
The canvas at her feet was unprimed. She had not bothe