Frank Stella
Born – Malden, USA 1936
Frank Stella studied at the Philips Academy in Andover from 1950-1954 and went to Princeton University. He graduated in 1958 and settled in New York, working as a house painter. His artistic path led straight to abstraction, admiring as he did the work of European art, particularly that of the Bauhaus and specifically the “hard-edge” abstract painter, Josef Albers. His approach to the abstract image was initially systematic and largely monochromatic, influenced to an extent by the Flags and Targets series of Jasper Johns. Stella’s Striped and then Black Paintings, first shown in 1959, were the antithesis of gestural Abstract Expressionism; they heralded the arrival of Minimalism. Although Agbatana II seems to follow this ordered pattern in a multicoloured way, it was in fact painted at a time when Stella was developing the decorative potential of abstraction. Aping the swirls and accidental marks of freehand painting, he cut out shapes and constructed them into reliefs of day-glo and metallic colours. Since the mid-1970s, Stella’s work has exaggered the effusive pigment – see the Exotic Birds series – and has explored the dissolution of the distinction between sculpture and painting, he has also produced large-scale works such as the 1997 murals for the Princess of Wales Theatre, Toronto.
Masterpieces:
- Tuxedo Park Junction
- Harewa
Text: The A-Z of Art, Nicola Hodge and Libby Anson.
Books About frank stella
Frank Stella: 1970-1987
Frank Stella
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Working Space
Frank Stella
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Frank Stella: Irregular Polygons, 1965-66
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