Frank Stella, Black Series I, Suite of 4 lithographs, 1967
View Similar Items
Frank StellaFrank Stella, Black Series I, Suite of 4 lithographs, 19671967
1967
About the Item
- Creator:Frank Stella (1936, American)
- Creation Year:1967
- Dimensions:Height: 15 in (38.1 cm)Width: 22 in (55.88 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:These prints are in excellent condition.
- Gallery Location:Houston, TX
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU122014356391
Frank Stella
Frank Stella is one of the central figures in postwar American art. A proponent of minimalism and non-representational abstraction, Stella is a painter, printmaker and sculptor. A native of Massachusetts, he attended Phillips Academy in Andover and earned a BA from Princeton, where he studied art and color theory with Josef Albers and Hans Hofmann.
Stella frequented New York galleries as a student and was intrigued by the work of Jackson Pollock and Franz Kline, both of whom were at the height of their creative powers in the late 1950s. After moving to New York in 1958, he gravitated toward the geometric abstraction and restrained painting style of Barnett Newman and Jasper Johns. Johns’s flat, graphic images of common objects such as targets and flags prompt viewers to question the essential nature of representation and whether these pictures are really paintings or simply new iterations of the items themselves. Stella pushed Johns’s reasoning further, considering paintings on canvas as objects in their own right, like sculptures, rather than representations. This led him to reject certain formal conventions, eschewing sketches and often using nontraditional materials, like house paint.
In 1959, Stella created his “Black Paintings,” series, in which bands of black paint are separated by thin, precise stripes of bare canvas. At a time when contemporary painting was all about wild gestures, thick paint and formal abandon, these pieces created a sensation. That same year, Stella's work was included in the exhibition "Sixteen Americans" at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and he joined the roster of artists represented by Leo Castelli Gallery. In 1960, he began introducing color into his work and using unconventionally shaped canvases to complement his compositions.
In his “Eccentric Polygon” series, from 1965 and ‘66, Stella embraces asymmetry and bold color, creating forms delineated by painted fields and by the edges of the canvas. This series was followed by the 1967–70 “Protractor” series, characterized by colorful circles and arcs. Named after the ancient cities whose circular plans Stella had noticed while traveling in the Middle East during the 1960s, these works usually comprised several canvases set flush against one another so that the geometric figures in each section came together in a larger, more complex whole.
Also in the mid-1960s, Stella started exploring printmaking, initially working with Kenneth Tyler, of Gemini G.E.L., and later installing printing equipment in his own studio. In 1968, he created the “V” series of lithographs,which included the print Quathlamba I. Following a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in 1970, Stella began working in three dimensions, adding relief elements to paintings, which could almost be considered wall-mounted sculptures.
Stella’s 1970–73 “Polish Village” series was inspired by a documentary photos and architectural drawings of Polish synagogues that had been destroyed by Nazis during World War II. The resulting works — composed primarily of paint and cloth on plywood — are more rugged and less polished than his previous series. Herman Melville's Moby Dick was his muse for a series of three- dimensional works he created in the 1980s in which waveforms, architectural elements and Platonic solids play a prominent role. During this period, Stella embraced a new, exuberant style that is exemplified in "La Scienza della Fiacca." In 1997, he oversaw the creation of the Stella Project, a 5,000-square-foot work inside the Moores Opera House at the University of Houston. A large free-standing sculpture by Stella stands outside the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
Stella’s work is in the collections of numerous important museum collections around the world, including New York’s Museum of Modern Art and Metropolitan Museum of Art; the Menil Collection, in Houston; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, in Washington, D.C.; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. He was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Obama in 2009, and was given the Lifetime Achievement Award in Contemporary Sculpture by the International Sculpture Center in 2011.
Find a collection of Frank Stella's art on 1stDibs.
- Untitled (Brown)By Sol LeWittLocated in New York, NY2004 Lithograph with etching aquatint on Somerset Textured White paper Sheet: 35 3/4 x 36 in. Edition of 30 Signed and numbered in Roman Numerals, lower rightCategory
Early 2000s Abstract Geometric Abstract Prints
MaterialsEtching, Aquatint, Lithograph
Price Upon Request - Israeli Modern Pop Art Photo Silkscreen Serigraph Palm Trees KadishmanBy Menashe KadishmanLocated in Surfside, FLMenashe Kadishman was born in Tel-Aviv in 1932. He is a Graduate of St. Martin's School of Art, University of London Studies with Anthony Caro, Reg Butler. From 1947 to 1950, Kadish...Category
1970s Abstract Geometric Landscape Prints
MaterialsEtching, Aquatint, Lithograph
- Ampersand (&) Abstract Geometric Silkscreen on Handmade Kenzo PaperBy William KatzLocated in Surfside, FLScreenprint printed in black and white on handmade oatmeal paper. Signed, dated and numbered in white pencil. Date and name lower right, Signed and numbered edition of 85 from ARTISTS PORTFOLIO, a limited edition series of five prints in support of the dance company of Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane & Company. The other four artists who contributed were Robert Longo, Keith Haring, William Katz and Gretchen Bender. Bill Katz was born in New York, studied at The Art Students League and with Sebastiano Mineo of New York City. He was the studio assistant to Robert Indiana for more than a decade, initiating and arranging print projects for the artist, including Numbers (1968), with poems by Robert Creeley.For five years he worked and lived in the home that was once occupied by the great American sculptor Gutson Borglum. He also spearheaded the project of the cover artwork at Chanterelle with the full roster of distinguished contributing artists, photographers, musicians, and writers — Marisol, Chuck Close, Jasper Johns and Robert Mapplethorpe. Almost all the images were made specifically for the menus In addition, some of the images were made for one night special events, such as annual benefits held for the Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane Dance Company. He also Curated for the Fisher Landau Center for Art, Painting and Sculpture, Selections from the collection, which included work by Carl Andre, Willem de Kooning, John Duff, Robert Indiana, Neil Jenney...Category
1980s Abstract Geometric Abstract Prints
MaterialsLithograph, Screen
- Color Balloons and Waves (Les Travestis du Reel) - Lithograph poster - 1979By Alexander CalderLocated in Paris, FRAlexander CALDER Les Travestis du Reel, 1979 Original vintage lithograph poster Printed in Atelier Arts-Litho Printed signature in the plate 82 x 57 cm (c. 32.2 x 22.4 in) Excelle...Category
1970s Abstract Geometric Abstract Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Israeli Modern Pop Art Photo Silkscreen Serigraph Palm Trees KadishmanBy Menashe KadishmanLocated in Surfside, FLMenashe Kadishman was born in Tel-Aviv in 1932. He is a Graduate of St. Martin's School of Art, University of London Studies with Anthony Caro, Reg Butler. From 1947 to 1950, Kadish...Category
1970s Abstract Geometric Landscape Prints
MaterialsEtching, Aquatint, Lithograph
- Israeli Modern Pop Art Aquatint Etching Cracked Earth Art Kadishman LithographBy Menashe KadishmanLocated in Surfside, FLThis one is a dark burgundy or purple color. Menashe Kadishman was born in Tel-Aviv in 1932. He is a Graduate of St. Martin's School of Art, University of London Studies with Anthony...Category
1970s Abstract Geometric Landscape Prints
MaterialsEtching, Aquatint, Lithograph