Frank Stella, The Waves: The Quarter-Deck, Lithograph, 1989
View Similar Items
Frank StellaFrank Stella, The Waves: The Quarter-Deck, Lithograph, 19891989
1989
About the Item
- Creator:Frank Stella (1936, American)
- Creation Year:1989
- Dimensions:Height: 190.5 in (483.87 cm)Width: 140.5 in (356.87 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:London, GB
- Reference Number:Seller: 1022391stDibs: LU4708752972
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.
- River of Ponds IBy Frank StellaLocated in London, GBLithograph in colours, 1971, on special Arjomari paper, signed, dated and numbered an AP aside from the edition of 78, published by Gemini G.E.L., Los Angeles, sheet: 96.5 x 96.5 cm....Category
1970s Minimalist Prints and Multiples
MaterialsLithograph
- Yellow JournalBy Frank StellaLocated in London, GBLithograph, 1982, on white Arches Cover, mould-made paper, signed and dated an AP aside the edition of 50, published by Tyler Graphics Ltd., Bedford Village, NY, sheet: 133.5 x 97.8 ...Category
1980s Minimalist Prints and Multiples
MaterialsLithograph
- One Plate, from We are the Jocular ClanBy Takashi MurakamiLocated in London, GBOffset lithograph in colours, 2018, on wove paper, signed in ink and numbered from the edition of 300, published by Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd., Tokyo, 47.6 x 47.6 cm. (18 3/4 x 18 3/4 in....Category
2010s Abstract Abstract Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- One Plate, from We Are The Square Jocular ClanBy Takashi MurakamiLocated in London, GBOffset lithograph in colours, 2018, on wove paper, signed in ink and numbered from the edition of 300, published by Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd., Tokyo, 47.5 x 47.5 cm. (18 3/4 x 18 3/4 in....Category
2010s Abstract Abstract Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- One Plate, from We are the Jocular ClanBy Takashi MurakamiLocated in London, GBOffset lithograph in colours, 2018, on wove paper, signed in ink and numbered from the edition of 300, published by Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd., Tokyo, 47.6 x 47.6 cm. (18 3/4 x 18 3/4 in....Category
2010s Abstract Abstract Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Portrait de Femme IIBy Pablo PicassoLocated in London, GBLithograph, 1955, on Arches wove paper, signed in pencil and numbered from the edition of 50, printed by Mourlot, Paris, published by Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris, 66.4 x 50 cm. (26⅛ by 19¾ in.) This abstract, three-quarter profile is of Picasso’s second wife, Jacqueline Roque. The couple met during the summer of 1952 whilst Roque was working at Georges and Suzanne Ramié’s Madoura pottery works in Vallauris, the studio where Picasso made his ceramics in the South of France. The couples love endured until the artist’s death in 1973, Picasso adored Jacqueline so much so that for seventeen of the twenty years the couple spent together - the longest relationship of Picasso’s life - Roque was the only female Picasso painted. When Picasso embarked on his late, great period, his biographer John Richardson succinctly defined and characterised as ‘l’époque Jacqueline.’ In this lithograph, Picasso bestows Roque with an elegant, sphinx-like appearance. The straight line of the nose which extends directly from the forehead to the tip is particularly evocative of these ancient Egyptian sculptures...Category
1950s Abstract Abstract Prints
MaterialsLithograph
Price Upon Request
- Pear IIIBy Ellsworth KellyLocated in New York, NYSheet size: 35 7/16 x 24 3/4 inches Frame size: 43 3/4 x 32 3/4 inches Printer: Imprimerie Arte, Paris Publisher: Maeght Éditeur, Paris Edition size: 75, plus proofs Catalogue Raison...Category
1960s Minimalist Still-life Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Dracena IIBy Ellsworth KellyLocated in New York, NYPrinter: Gemini, G.E.L., Los Angeles Publisher: Gemini, G.E.L., Los Angeles Catalogue raisonné: Axsom 213 Edition size: 30, plus proofs Signed and numbered in pencil, lower rightCategory
1980s Minimalist Still-life Prints
MaterialsLithograph
Price Upon Request - Blue and Green over OrangeBy Ellsworth KellyLocated in New York, NYPrinter: Imprimerie Arte, Paris Publisher: Maeght Editeur, Paris Edition size: 75, plus proofs Catalogue raisonné: Axsom 29 Signed and numbered in pencil, lower marginCategory
1960s Minimalist Abstract Prints
MaterialsLithograph
Price Upon Request - DartmouthBy Ellsworth KellyLocated in New York, NY5-color lithograph Sheet: 14 x 28 1/2 in. (35.6 x 72.4 cm) Edition of 45 Signed and numbered in pencil on lower margin Published by Gemini G.E.L., Los AngelesCategory
2010s Minimalist Abstract Prints
MaterialsLithograph
Price Upon Request - Red CurveBy Ellsworth KellyLocated in New York, NY1-color lithograph Sheet: 30 x 22 in. (76.2 x 55.9 cm) Edition of 50 Signed and numbered in pencil on lower margin Published by Gemini G.E.L., Los AngelesCategory
2010s Minimalist Abstract Prints
MaterialsLithograph
Price Upon Request - Blue Gray Green RedBy Ellsworth KellyLocated in New York, NY4-color lithograph Sheet: 12 x 14 in. (30.5 x 35.6 cm) Edition of 150 Signed and numbered in pencil Published by Gemini G.E.L., Los AngelesCategory
Early 2000s Minimalist Abstract Prints
MaterialsLithograph
Recently Viewed
View AllRead More
Get to Know the Artists Who Led the Op Art Movement
In the 1960s and '70s, the hypnotic creations of Op artists went mainstream and influenced the look of pop culture.
Shapero Modern’s Director Tells Us All about 20th-Century Prints
Tabitha Philpott-Kent knows a lot of art multiples. Here, the London gallery director talks about what makes printmaking so fabulous.