Helen C. Frederick (born 1945) is an American artist, curator, and the founder of

Pyramid Atlantic Art Center Pyramid Atlantic Art Center (PAAC) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit contemporary arts center specializing in papermaking, printmaking, and book arts. They are currently located at 4318 Gallatin Street in Hyattsville, Maryland. History The PAAC was ...

, an arts organization in Maryland. She is known mainly for printed media and large-scale works created by hand papermaking as a medium of expression that often incorporate the use of language. She has curated exhibitions such as ''Ten Years After 9/11'', which respond to issues about the human condition.

Early life and education

Helen C. Frederick was born in 1945 in Pottstown,

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. Frederick received her BFA degree in Illustration (1967) and her Master of Fine Arts degree in Painting (1969) from the

Rhode Island School of Design The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD , pronounced "Riz-D") is a private art and design school in Providence, Rhode Island. The school was founded as a coeducational institution in 1877 by Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf, who sought to increase the ...

, where she met German artist

Dieter Roth Dieter Roth (April 21, 1930 – June 5, 1998) was a Swiss artist best known for his artist's books, editioned prints, sculptures, and works made of found materials, including rotting food stuffs. He was also known as Dieter Rot and Diter Rot. ...

, who introduced her to innovative printed media techniques.Artists in Residence.” Hollins University. http://www.hollins.edu/academics/art/artres.shtml Frederick's interest in paper as a medium began in 1976, when she visited Ahmedebad,

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, where

Robert Rauschenberg Milton Ernest "Robert" Rauschenberg (October 22, 1925 – May 12, 2008) was an American painter and graphic artist whose early works anticipated the Pop art movement. Rauschenberg is well known for his Combines (1954–1964), a group of artwor ...

had completed a

papermaking Papermaking is the manufacture of paper and cardboard, which are used widely for printing, writing, and packaging, among many other purposes. Today almost all paper is made using industrial machinery, while handmade paper survives as a speciali ...

project. She continued her study of paper-making during travels to the Netherlands, Japan and China.Boscov, Rema. “Giving Weight to Paper.” The Washington Post. Jan 15, 1985. p. C7.

Work

In 1981, she founded

, a center for contemporary printmaking, hand papermaking and the art of the book, which she directed for twenty-eight years. Since 1996, Frederick has taught printmaking and graduate studies at

George Mason University George Mason University (George Mason, Mason, or GMU) is a public research university in Fairfax County, Virginia with an independent City of Fairfax, Virginia postal address in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area. The university was origin ...

's School of Art, where she serves as director of the department's imprint, Navigation Press. Frederick specializes in hand-driven media such as custom-formed paper, artist's books, paintings, drawings, and prints, and she is recognized as the D.C. area's “most knowledgeable paper artist." Her work has also incorporated electronic media, video, digital prints, photography, “video books,” and sculpture.Rice, Robin. “Helen C. Frederick; Caution: Appearance (Dis)appearance.” Philadelphia City Paper, April 12–19, 1996.McWilliams, Martha. “Bombs Away.” The Washington Post, 1996. Her video work “Dislocations” (2011) has been compared to

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationsh ...

by curator Jeffry Cudlin;Cudlin, Jeffry. ''Helen Frederick: Mechanisms for Metamorphosis'' p. 12 Critic Paul Ryan described her work in “Hungry Ghosts” (2011) as "drawing us closer to victims as they linger within the beyond – a liminal space conceptually akin to that described by post-colonial theorist

Homi K. Bhabha Homi Kharshedji Bhabha (; born 1 November 1949) is an Indian-British scholar and critical theorist. He is the Anne F. Rothenberg Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University. He is one of the most important figures in contemporary post ...

as a physical space and occurrences where …there is a sense of disorientation, a disturbance of direction..an exploratory, restless movement….” Ryan, Paul."A Deliberate Sorrow: Helen Frederick's Incorporeal Other," ''Helen Frederick'', Eleanor D. Wilson Museum, Hollins University, Roanoke, VA, p. 21. Ryan also noted that "Hungry Ghosts" was influenced by Frederick's interest in Buddhist teachings and meditation practices. In her 2010 solo exhibition, ''Dissonance'' at

Hollins University Hollins University is a private university in Hollins, Virginia. Founded in 1842 as Valley Union Seminary in the historical settlement of Botetourt Springs, it is one of the oldest institutions of higher education for women in the United States ...

’s Eleanor D. Wilson Art Museum, Frederick referenced the atomic bomb and the Cold War, themes that have often surfaced in her work. Her 1996 installation ''Caution: Appearance (Dis)appearance'' explored the significance of the atomic bomb fifty years after its first detonation. In this installation, Frederick, who was born shortly before the first testing of the atomic bomb, examined her own personal connection with the bomb and how it has impacted her life, as well as its implications for the natural world.Protzman, Ferdinand. “A fusion of nuclear reactions.” The Washington Post. Oct 21, 1995. p. H2. She explored similar themes in her 1995 collaborative book with Bridget Lambert, ''Abracadabra'', which used fifty images to “represent the 50 years of Frederick's life from 1945 to 1995.” Wooten, Anita. “Helen Frederick: Land and body: corporeal metaphors in current landscape painting.” Art Papers. Texann Fine Arts Gallery, Orlando, FL. March/April, 1998. Frederick's ''Masse Ici'', exhibited at Texann Ivy Fine Arts in 1998, “delve deeply into issues of our technological age and the landscape of memory."

Exhibitions

Major exhibitions of Frederick's work have been held at the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum at

(2011), Dieu Donne’ Gallery, New York (1996), Henie Onstad Museum, Norway (1979), Harvard's

Fogg Museum The Harvard Art Museums are part of Harvard University and comprise three museums: the Fogg Museum (established in 1895), the Busch-Reisinger Museum (established in 1903), and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum (established in 1985), and four research ...

(Davidson), and traveling museum exhibitions in Japan, Scandinavia, Europe, the United States and South America.

Collections

Frederick's work is included in the

Whitney Museum of Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), ...

in New York; the

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of char ...

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

, and the

Smithsonian American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum (commonly known as SAAM, and formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds o ...

in Washington, D.C.; and many other national and international collections.

Awards

Frederick has received numerous awards for her work, including a

Fulbright The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...

(1973) and Mid-Atlantic Arts Award (1988), the Maryland Governor's Award for leadership in the Arts (2000) and the Southern Graphic Council Printmaker Emeritus Award, (2008). She was 2011 Frances Niederer Artist-in-Residence at

. She received the 2018 Distinguished Teaching Award of Distinction from the

College Art Association The College Art Association of America (CAA) is the principal organization in the United States for professionals in the visual arts, from students to art historians to emeritus faculty. Founded in 1911, it "promotes these arts and their understa ...

(CAA).

References

Bibliography

* ''The Arts of the Book'',

Clive Phillpot Clive Phillpot (Born 1938) is a specialist on artists' books, essayist, art writer, curator, and a librarian. Phillpot started his library career at the Charing Cross Public Library in London. Career He is a former librarian at the Chelsea School ...

, The University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA, 1988 * * ''Paper Art 4'', Internationale der Papierkunst, Leopold Hoesch Museum, Duren, Germany, 1992 * ''Graphic Legacy'', Susan Fisher Sterling, The National Museum for Woman in the Arts, 1995 * ''Evolving Forms/Emerging Faces'', Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 1997 * * ''Printmaking: A Contemporary Perspective'', Paul Coldwell, Black Dog Publishing, London, UK, 2010 *
Helen Frederick
'' Eleanor D. Wilson Museum, Hollins University, Roanoke, VA, 2011.

External links

Helen Frederick website

Artist Page at Smithsonian American Art Museum

Exhibition info at Chazin Art Museum

ARTTABLE Oral History Project, Smithsonian American Art Museum

Brooklyn Museum Feminist Art Base Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Frederick, Helen C. 1945 births Living people 20th-century American women artists American art curators Artists from Pennsylvania Feminist artists George Mason University faculty Rhode Island School of Design alumni American women printmakers Book artists American women academics 21st-century American women American women curators