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I felt lucky, she says, but extremely sad.
He had anEnter the DragonT-shirt on and, I think, pearls, she says.
There is a hard-candy determination in the work and, one suspects, in her.
Although, she insists to me, shes mellowing, getting nicer.
She made the paintings in this show upstate.
The light is beautiful in my studio, she says.
They spent most of the pandemic there with their daughters and grandchildren nearby.
It was a strange sensation for me there.
I was in my studio with this amazing light thinking about all the horror.
Helen is careful with him, and, to hear her tell it, he with her.
He rarely gives her negative feedback on her work, for example.
She grew up Helen Harrington in Pennsylvania but knew from age 12 that her destiny lay elsewhere.
Helen was always formidable.
At Maxs, I met all these people, she says.
I was really lucky.
Its a word she uses often.
They married the next year.
In 1971, they visited Hydra and soon started summering there.
The intense Mediterranean light seemed to invigorate Brices painting, and before long, his career took off.
Helen, though, withdrew from painting.
I just felt I couldnt do it, she says.
I didnt have enough confidence, I guess.
They had two children, and she continued to travel.
There was a reason for her hesitancy: Being Brices wife didnt exactly make things easy.
Meanwhile, Helen continued to make work but until recently hadnt shown it much.
Larry looked at my painting and decided to.
She pauses, considering.
Cy and I were friends, she says.
We knew one another from when Brice was working for [Robert] Rauschenberg.
Yes, she has somehow been friends with everybody.
She could have used it as an epigraph for this show.
Or, as she tells me, I want these paintings to project joy.
Bitter Light a Year is on view from April 6 to May 8 at Gagosian Gallery,976 Madison Avenue.
