Helen Marden

The first-ever monograph on painter Helen Marden, covering over forty years of her work. This is the first ever monograph to present the full oeuvre of the painter Helen Marden. The book documents her development from the abstracted, dark, and muted landscapes of the early 1980s, through the vibrantly hued, more lyrical work of the 1990s and early 2000s, to the most recent Grief paintings, made in response to the passing of her husband, the artist Brice Marden. Over the last decade, Marden has attached found objects—primarily shells collected from around the world—to the surfaces of her works, giving them a unique texture and providing an index of her travels. A new essay by Anna Godbersen discusses the development of Marden’s practice in concert with changes in her personal life, her voyages around the globe, and her close relationships with key figures in the art world. An interview with the artist Kiki Smith is also included, along with a “travelogue” documenting Helen and Brice’s studios and travels over the course of their fifty-five-year marriage.