Helen Phillips Archives
Association
The mission of the Helen Phillips Archives Association is to document the life and promote the artistic career of Helen Phillips.
Its ongoing effort lies towards enriching the known fund of the artist’s works, to organise exhibitions, publications, conduct scientific research and digitalise unpublished archival material.
This encompass the artist’s writings, which bear a first hand witness and personal narrative of the beginnings of Atelier 17.
Until the 60s Helen Phillips’s prints and sculptures were exhibited in the major galleries and Museums of two continents.
She befriended the most renowned artists of her time and her work was largely recognized by the art community.
Given the stature of Helen Phillips and her contribution to modern and contemporary art, the aim of the Association is to bring attention to the artist’s work and legacy, helping to reintroduce her to the public, critics and art historians.
“There is no better time than the present to embark in this recovery mission” (G. Smith)
About us
Members of the Committee
President: Carla Esposito Hayter
Art Director: Andrea Altitonante
Executive director and General Secretary: Nabil Ait Akkache
Board of directors: Carla Esposito Hayter, Christa Story, Christina Weyl, Terri Geist, Jon Eckel, Agnes Thiebault, Tancrède Hertzog, Scarlett Reliquet, Daria Fuà and Max Hayter.
Rights manager and Executive Assistant: Alice Esposito
Location
The Helen Phillips Archive is based in Paris
Archival collection
Photography collection
Manuscript collection
Press Review
Multimedia collection
Film BBC “ Helen Phillips, sculptor, in her studio’, 1988
Christa Story, Form, Growth, and Variation. The experimental prints of Helen Phillips, Wright Museum of Art, USA, 2023/24
Prints done at Atelier 17 were a vehicle of discovery and self expression rather than a way to make complete printed editions. As other Atelier 17 artists Helen Phillips pursued variant effects in successive proofs, by changing the marks, inkings, and papers. Especially before 1950, Phillips’s prints done at Atelier 17 are primarily documentations of learning techniques and practice in mark-making on copper plates, the changes she pursued, and the many states recorded.
In the 1950s began a fervent exploration of color printing. Many of the impressions of this time period are unique impressions that resulted from simultaneous color printing and various inking techniques.
What follows is a catalogue of Phillips’s known prints, with as many variations illustrated as possible.
Services ON DEMAND
Authentification of Helen Phillips’ artworks
The Authentication Committee is composed by art curators Carla Esposito Hayter, Scarlett Reliquiet, Christa Story, Jon Eckel, and Agnes Thiébault. The Committee meets regularly to establish the authenticity of the artworks it receives. Relying on an experience acquired over 20 years work and thanks to the richness of the archives of the Association, the Committee is internationally recognised.
Authentification process
The request for the authentication of a work supposably by the artist starts with this downloadable form.
This completed form must be accompanied by photographs of the work and any signatures, foundry marks, labels which may be visible.
These documents will be integrated into the archives of the Helen Philips Archives and eventually in the catalogue raisonné of the artist.
Certificate of authenticity
For the issuance of a certificate of authenticity, the work must be presented physically at the Helen Phillips Archives Association’s premises. The cost for the release of a written certificate of authenticity varies according to the artwork.
Further information
For further information about the artist and her work, please contact the Association Helen Phillips Archives at: info@helenphillips-archives.org
For the release of photographic material please contact the Association’s rights manager at: alice@helenphillips-archives.org
Make a Donation
The Association being non profit, it relies on donations helping to conserve Helen Phillips’s legacy, to enrich the existing and known funds of the artist’s work and to create exhibitions, events and more.