Toward Dark

1985–1992

The National Council on the Arts

From 1985 to 1992 she serves, as a presidential appointee, on the National Council on the Arts, which advises the chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts.

1986

The New York City Mayor’s Award for Arts and Culture

She receives the New York City Mayor’s Award of Honor for Arts and Culture.

1989

A New York Times commentary on NEA funding

In a commentary for The New York Times she writes that censorship and government interference in the directions and standards of art are dangerous and not part of the democratic process, while controversial grants to Andres Serrano, Robert Mapplethorpe and others reflect a trend of supporting work of increasingly dubious quality. She thus takes a highly public stance in the late-1980s “culture wars”.

1989–1990

Painting retrospective: Fort Worth and MoMA

The retrospective “Helen Frankenthaler: a Painting Retrospective” opens at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth (1989–90) and then travels to the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Detroit Institute of Arts.

1990–1994

The National Academy of Design

In 1990 she is elected an Associate member of the National Academy of Design, and in 1994 she becomes a full Academician.