May 26 Backwards

Description

In 1961 Frankenthaler was only beginning to understand the finer points of printmaking. The most essential of these is that printing reverses the image set on the stone. The title of this print, May 26 Backwards, is a playful acknowledgement that while the artist wrote the numbers in mirror image to compensate for the printing process, she neglected to invert the digits. As a result, 26 appears as 62 in the final print.

May 26 Backwards

Helen Frankenthaler

1961

Accession Number

97466

Medium

Color lithograph from three stones on paper

Dimensions

Sheet: 78.8 × 56.2 cm (31 1/16 × 22 3/16 in.)

Classification

lithograph

Museum

The Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago, United States

Credit Line

U.L.A.E. Collection acquired through a challenge grant of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Dittmer; purchased with funds provided by supporters of the Department of Prints and Drawings; Centennial Endowment; Margaret Fisher Endowment Fund