Frank Stella

Frank Stella. Photo: Sally Fraser

 

Frank Stella (*1936) is a crucial figure in the trajectory of modern and contemporary art. From his revolutionary Black Paintings of the late 1950s and the shaped canvases of the 1960s to his recent sculptural work incorporating complex 3D-rendered forms, Stella has remained remarkably true to his artistic vision and extraordinarily innovative—both in his compositions and his materials—even past his ninth decade. At its core, Stella’s project constitutes a search for ever-new ways to conceive of and represent space, moving seamlessly between hard geometries and organic manifestations.

 

Studio Visit: Frank Stella
Christie’s studio visit, Hudson Valley, New York, 2019

 

Works
Frank Stella
Frank Stella
Perfect Day for Banana Fish, 1958

Frank Stella
Perfect Day for Banana Fish, 1958
Oil on canvas
193.7 × 261 cm
76 1/4 × 102 3/4 inches

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Frank Stella
Frank Stella
Delta, 1958

Frank Stella
Delta, 1958
Enamel on canvas
216.9 × 246.4 cm × 7.6 cm
85 3/8 × 97 × 3 inches

Frank Stella
Frank Stella
Damascus Gate (Stretch Variation I), 1970

Frank Stella
Damascus Gate (Stretch Variation I), 1970
Acrylic on canvas on shaped stretcher
304.8 × 1524 cm
120 × 600 inches

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Frank Stella
Frank Stella
Lanckorona I, 1971

Frank Stella
Lanckorona I, 1971 (detail)

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Frank Stella
Frank Stella
Scramble: Ascending Spectrum/Ascending Yellow Values, 1978

Frank Stella
Scramble: Ascending Spectrum/Ascending Yellow Values, 1978
Acrylic on canvas
175.3 × 175.3 cm
69 × 69 inches

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Frank Stella
Frank Stella
Study for Princess of Wales Theater, Toronto, III, 1992

Frank Stella
Study for Princess of Wales Theater, Toronto, III, 1992
Mixed medium on canvas
152.4 × 348 × 6.4 cm
60 × 137 × 2 1/2 inches

Frank Stella
Frank Stella
Saint-Pierremont, 1992

Frank Stella
Saint-Pierremont, 1992
Steel and rebar
94 × 109.2 × 34.3 cm
37 × 43 × 13 1/2 inches

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Frank Stella
Frank Stella
The Sperm Whale's Head, 1989

Frank Stella
The Sperm Whale's Head, 1989
Mixed media on fabricated aluminium and magnesium
179.1 × 160 × 120.7 cm
70 1/2 × 63 × 47 1/2 inches

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Frank Stella
Frank Stella
Shards IV (4.75X), 1983

Frank Stella
Shards IV (4.75X), 1983
Mixed media on aluminium and fibreglass
457.2 × 515.6 × 101.6 cm
180 × 203 × 40 inches

Frank Stella
Frank Stella
Summer Star (Net), 2015

Frank Stella
Summer Star (Net), 2015
Flexible RPT
203.2 × 243.8 × 243.8 cm
80 × 96 × 96 inches

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Frank Stella
Frank Stella
Blue Hat 1, 2018

Frank Stella
Blue Hat 1, 2018
Acrylic on canvas
114.6 × 120 cm
45 1/8 × 47 1/4 inches

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Details
Frank Stella

Frank Stella
Perfect Day for Banana Fish, 1958
Oil on canvas
193.7 × 261 cm
76 1/4 × 102 3/4 inches

Frank Stella
Frank Stella

Frank Stella
Perfect Day for Banana Fish, 1958 (detail)

Frank Stella
Frank Stella

Frank Stella
Perfect Day for Banana Fish, 1958 (detail)

Frank Stella

Frank Stella
Delta, 1958
Enamel on canvas
216.9 × 246.4 cm × 7.6 cm
85 3/8 × 97 × 3 inches

Frank Stella

Frank Stella
Damascus Gate (Stretch Variation I), 1970
Acrylic on canvas on shaped stretcher
304.8 × 1524 cm
120 × 600 inches

Frank Stella
Frank Stella

Frank Stella
Damascus Gate (Stretch Variation I), 1970 (detail)

Frank Stella
Frank Stella

Frank Stella
Damascus Gate (Stretch Variation I), 1970 (detail)

Frank Stella

Frank Stella
Lanckorona I, 1971 (detail)

Frank Stella
Frank Stella

Frank Stella
Lanckorona I, 1971 (detail)

Frank Stella
Frank Stella

Frank Stella
Lanckorona I, 1971 (detail)

Frank Stella

Frank Stella
Scramble: Ascending Spectrum/Ascending Yellow Values, 1978
Acrylic on canvas
175.3 × 175.3 cm
69 × 69 inches

Frank Stella
Frank Stella

Frank Stella
Scramble: Ascending Spectrum/Ascending Yellow Values, 1978 (detail)

Frank Stella

Frank Stella
Study for Princess of Wales Theater, Toronto, III, 1992
Mixed medium on canvas
152.4 × 348 × 6.4 cm
60 × 137 × 2 1/2 inches

Frank Stella

Frank Stella
Saint-Pierremont, 1992
Steel and rebar
94 × 109.2 × 34.3 cm
37 × 43 × 13 1/2 inches

Frank Stella
Frank Stella

Frank Stella
Saint-Pierremont, 1992 (detail)

Frank Stella
Frank Stella

Frank Stella
Saint-Pierremont, 1992 (detail)

Frank Stella
Frank Stella

Frank Stella
Saint-Pierremont, 1992 (detail)

Frank Stella

Frank Stella
The Sperm Whale's Head, 1989
Mixed media on fabricated aluminium and magnesium
179.1 × 160 × 120.7 cm
70 1/2 × 63 × 47 1/2 inches

Frank Stella
Frank Stella

Frank Stella
The Sperm Whale's Head, 1989 (detail)

Frank Stella
Frank Stella

Frank Stella
The Sperm Whale's Head, 1989 (detail)

Frank Stella

Frank Stella
Shards IV (4.75X), 1983
Mixed media on aluminium and fibreglass
457.2 × 515.6 × 101.6 cm
180 × 203 × 40 inches

Frank Stella

Frank Stella
Summer Star (Net), 2015
Flexible RPT
203.2 × 243.8 × 243.8 cm
80 × 96 × 96 inches

Frank Stella
Frank Stella

Frank Stella
Summer Star (Net), 2015 (detail)

Frank Stella
Frank Stella

Frank Stella
Summer Star (Net), 2015 (detail)

Frank Stella
Frank Stella

Frank Stella
Summer Star (Net), 2015 (detail)

Frank Stella
Frank Stella

Frank Stella
Summer Star (Net), 2015 (detail)

Frank Stella
Frank Stella

Frank Stella
Summer Star (Net), 2015 (detail)

Frank Stella
Frank Stella

Frank Stella
Summer Star (Net), 2015 (detail)

Frank Stella
Frank Stella

Frank Stella
Summer Star (Net), 2015 (detail)

Frank Stella

Frank Stella
Blue Hat 1, 2018
Acrylic on canvas
114.6 × 120 cm
45 1/8 × 47 1/4 inches

Frank Stella
Frank Stella

Frank Stella
Blue Hat 1, 2018 (detail)

Frank Stella
Frank Stella

Frank Stella
Blue Hat 1, 2018 (detail)

Frank Stella
Frank Stella

Frank Stella
Blue Hat 1, 2018 (detail)

Frank Stella
Frank Stella

Frank Stella
Blue Hat 1, 2018 (detail)

Frank Stella
Frank Stella

Frank Stella
Blue Hat 1, 2018 (detail)

Details
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Current and Upcoming
Frank Stella
Barbara Kruger, Untitled (We will no longer be seen and not heard), 1985
Courtesy the artist, Blanton Museum of Art. Photo: Manny Alcala

Day Jobs
Group Exhibition
Cantor Arts Center, Stanford
Through July 21, 2024

One of the typical measures of success for artists is the ability to quit their day jobs and focus full time on making art. Yet these roles are not always an impediment to an artist’s career. This exhibition, which includes the work of Richard Artschwager, Gretchen Bender, Barbara Kruger and Frank Stella, among many others, illuminates how day jobs can spur creative growth by providing artists with unexpected new materials and methods, working knowledge of a specific industry that becomes an area of artistic interest or critique, or a predictable structure that opens space for unpredictable ideas.

Link
Exhibitions at Sprüth Magers
Frank Stella

Frank Stella
Recent Work
September 14–October 26, 2018
Los Angeles

Frank Stella's work across media, from painting to sculpture to printmaking, has continuously broken ground at each stage of his decades-long career, remaining influential and relevant to subsequent generations of contemporary artists. This is the first solo exhibition of Frank Stella’s painting and sculpture in Los Angeles since 1995. The selection of works highlights the artist’s ongoing experimentation with spatial representation and includes the début of a new painting series.

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Frank Stella

Thank You For The Music
Saadane Afif, John Armleder, John Baldessari, Matthew Barney, Pash Buzari, Bruce Conner, Sean Dack, Walter Dahn, Jeremy Deller, Thomas Demand, Simon English, Cerith Wyn Evans, Sylvie Fleury, Liam Gillick, Douglas Gordon, Dan Graham, Andreas Gursky, Stefan Hirsig, Christian Holstad, David Lamelas, Arto Lindsay / Matthew Barney, Robert Mapplethorpe, Christian Marclay, Jonas Mekas, , Jonathan Monk, Simon Moretti, Paul Morrissey, Raymond Pettibon, Zbigniew Rogalski, Steven Shearer, Hedi Slimane, Frank Stella, Thaddeus Strode, Mika Taanila, Wolfgang Tillmans, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Essi Utriainen, Mayer Vaisman, Banks Violette
November 24, 2005–February 11, 2006
Munich

The exhibition Thank You For The Music examines music and pop culture, their various market mechanisms and the liberation from traditional copyright restrictions as a ubiquitous source of artistic inspiration — one that has become a global phenomenon and a permanent aspect of everyday experience. Drawing on a selection of contributions by more than 30 international artists, filmmakers and musicians, the show attempts to position intersections between visual arts, music culture and music history within a larger social context.

Press

Stars in perpetual evolution, aligned
The New York Times International Edition, review by Jason Farago, February 10, 2021

Notes on the Culture: The Constellation of Frank Stella
The New York Times, article by Megan O’Grady, March 18, 2020

Frank Stella Doesn’t Believe in Artistic Reinvention
Artsy, article by Alina Cohen, June 11, 2019

The Surprising Tale of One of Frank Stella’s Black Paintings
The New York Times, article by Ted Loos, February 17, 2019

‘Frank Stella Unbound’, Review: Leaving His Mark on Literature
The Wall Street Journal, article by Karen Wilkin, June 25, 2018

Editor’s Pick: Frank Stella on Six Decades of Experimentation and Change
Introspective Magazine, interview by Ted Loos, January 22, 2018

Defending Late Stella
Art in America, article by P.C. Smith, March 2016

Frank Stella: Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Artforum International, article by Thomas Crow, February 2016

Big Ideas: A Frank Stella retrospective.
The New Yorker, article by Peter Schjeldahl, November 9, 2015

Biography

Frank Stella (*1936, Malden, MA) lives and works in New York. His works have received numerous large-scale solo exhibitions, including at Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT (2020), Princeton University Art Museum (2018), NSU Art Museum, Fort Lauderdale, FL (2017–18), The de Young Museum, San Francisco (2016), Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2015), POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Warsaw (2016), Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg (2012), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2007), Haus der Kunst, Munich (1996), Museum of Modern Art, New York (1988, 1970), Kunsthalle Bielefeld (1977), Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (1970) and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (1965). Major recent group exhibitions include those at Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2019–20), The Met Breuer, New York (2019), National Museum of Art, Osaka (2018), Museum of Modern Art, New York (2017), Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (2017), and National Gallery, London (2017). In 2015, Stella won the National Artist Award from The Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Aspen, and in 2009, he received the National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama.

Education
1950–54 Phillips Academy, Andover, MA; studied painting under Patrick Morgan
1954–58 Princeton University, Princeton, NJ; studied History and Art History under Stephen Greene and William Seitz
Awards, Grants and Fellowships
2019 Lifetime of Artistic Excellence Award, Black Alumni of Pratt
2015 National Artist Award, The Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Aspen, CO
2010 National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama, Washington, DC
2001 Gold Medal of the National Arts Club, New York
1998 Gold Medal of the National Arts Club, New York
1992 Barnard Medal of Distinction, New York
1989 Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the French Government
1986 Honorary Degree, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA
1985 Award of American Art, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia
1985 Honorary Degree, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
1984 Honorary Doctor of Arts, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
1983 Appointed Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
1981 New York City Mayor’s Award for Arts and Culture
1981 Medal for Painting, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Skowhegan, ME
1981 Honorary Fellowship, Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem
1979 Awarded the Claude M. Fuess Distinguished Service Award, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA
1967 First Prize, International Biennial Exhibition of Paintings, Tokyo
Public Collections
Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto
Art Institute of Chicago
Baltimore Museum
Brooklyn Museum
Brown University, List Art Center, Providence, RI
Cleveland Museum of Art
Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, TX
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Dallas Museum of Art
Denver Art Museum
Detroit Institute of Arts
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, MA
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC
Indianapolis Museum of Art
Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, PA
Kawamura Memorial Museum of Art, Sakura
Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO
Kitakyushu Municipal Museum
Kunstmuseum, Basel
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk
Minneapolis Institute of Arts
Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth
Moderna Museet, Stockholm
Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
Museum Bochum
Museum Boymans von Beuningen, Rotterdam
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Museum Folkwang, Essen
Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, TX
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO
Philadelphia Art Museum
Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, NJ
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Seattle Art Museum
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven
Tate, London
The Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC
The Saint Louis Art Museum
University of Michigan Art Museum, East Lansing, MI
Vancouver Art Museum
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Yale University Art Gallery New Haven, CT