Frank Stella

  • Frank Stella, Les Indes Galantes IV, 1973 (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Frank Stella, K.109, 2006 (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Frank Stella, Michael Kohlhaas (From an old chronicle) Panel 2, 2000 (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Frank Stella, Les Indes Galantes IV, 1973
  • Biography
    View works. Frank Stella
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    The American artist, Frank Stella is mostly recognised for his Minimalist, and abstract works. Born in Massachusetts in 1936, Stella went on to study history at Princeton University and later moved to New York City. There, he increasingly felt influenced by the work of Jackson Pollock and Franz Kline and, later, by the flatter surfaces of Barnett Newman. He first explored his notorious striped, geometrically patterned canvases in his Black Paintings of the late 1950s, which were included in the 1959 show 16 Americans at New York's Museum of Modern Art. From there, Stella continued his explorations into geometric abstraction, beginning to introduce colour into his work. Stella's printmaking developed alongside his painting and often explored similar themes of repetition, Minimalism, and industrial constructions. In the 1980s and 1990s, Stella moved towards increasingly sculptural painting and constructions, where, in the 1990s, he contributed to a number of public art and architecture projects. His art has been exhibited worldwide and is included in the collections of major art institutions including the MoMA and Solomon R Guggenheim Museum in New York; the Kunstmuseum Basel; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam; and Tate Modern in London.

  • Timeline

    1936 Born in Malden, Massachusetts; both his parents painted regularly

    1950-4 Studies Art History at Princeton University and takes several art studio classes. His art receives acclaim throughout the university, with Daily Princetonian writing, ‘keep an eye on this guy, he’s going places’ in a review of his work in a university exhibition.

    1954 Moves to New York and begins working on The Black Paintings

    1959 Joins Leo Castelli’s stable of artists

    1961 Marries the well-known art critic, Barbara Rose

    Early 1960s Begins experimenting with shaped canvases

    Mid-1960s Extends artistic practice into printmaking

    1970 Becomes the youngest artist in history to receive a retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, at the age of 34

    1978 Represents the United States at the Venice Biennale

    1990 Begins creating free-standing sculptures

    2024 Dies in New York, NY

  • Selected Exhibitions

    1959 Frank Stella, Malden Public Library

    1964 Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California

    1964 Venice Biennale XXXII, Venice, Italy

    1965 Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

    1967 US Pavilion at Expo 67, Montreal, Canada

    1967 Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA

    1968 Frank Stella: Recent Paintings and Drawings, Washington Gallery of Modern Art, Washington DC

    1968 Frank Stella, Bennington College, Bennington, VT

    1969 Mayaguez Campus of the University of Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico

    1969 Frank Stella, Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham

    1970 Frank Stella: Retrospective, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY

    1970 Frank Stella: Retrospective, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands

    1970 Frank Stella: Retrospective, Hayward Gallery, London, UK

    1971 Frank Stella: Retrospective, Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena, CA

    1976 Frank Stella: The Black Paintings, The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD

    1977 Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, UK

    1978 Stella Since 1970, Fort Worth Art Museum, Fort Worth, TX

    1978 Stella Since 1970, Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport, CA

    1978 Frank Stella: The Series within a Series, Visual Arts Museum, School of Visual Arts, New

    York, NY

    1978 Stella Since 1970, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal, Montreal, Québec

    1979 Frank Stella: The Indian Bird Maquettes, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY

    1979 Stella Since 1970, Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO

    1979 Stella Since 1970, Mississippi Art Museum, Jackson, MI

    1980 Stella Since 1970, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN

    1980 Frank Stella: Working Drawings / Zeichnungen, Kunstmuseum, Basel, Germany

    1982 Reprospective, The University of Michigan Museum of Art, MI

    1982 Frank Stella: Working Drawings from the Artist’s Collection, Kitakyushu Municipal

    Museum of Art, Kyushu, Japan

    1982 Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

    1983 Frank Stella: Polish Wooden Synagogues—Constructions from the 1970s, Jewish

    Museum, New York, NY

    1983 Resource / Response / Reservoir: Stella Survey 1959–1982, San Francisco Museum of

    Modern Art - SFMoMA, San Francisco, CA

    1983 Frank Stella: Selected Works, Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

    1985 Frank Stella: Works 1979–1985, Institute of Contemporary Arts - ICA London, London, UK

    1987 Frank Stella 1970–1978, The Museum of Modern Art - MoMA, New York, NY

    1989 Frank Stella: 1970–1987, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Houston, TX

    1995 Frank Stella, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain

    1996 Richard Meier, Frank Stella: Architecture and Art, Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art,

    Nagoya

    1998 Frank Stella: New Paintings, Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London, UK

    1999 Frank Stella: Easel Paintings, Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London, UK

    2001 Heinrich von Kleist by Frank Stella, Roemer und Pelizaeus Museum, Hildesheim

    2004 What You See Is What You See: Frank Stella and the Anderson Collection at SFMOMA,

    San Francisco Museum of Modern Art - SFMoMA, San Francisco, CA

    2005 Frank Stella’s Moby Dick Series Prints, Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos

    Aires, Argentina

    2006 Frank Stella’s Moby Dick Series Prints, National Museum of Fine Arts, Santiago, Chile

    2007 Frank Stella: Painting into Architecture, The Metropolitan Museum of Art - The Met,

    New York, NY

    2015 Frank Stella: A Retrospective, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

    2015 Inflated Star and Wood Star, Royal Academy, London, UK

    2015 FRANK STELLA, Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London, UK

    2016 Frank Stella Prints: A Retrospective, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Madison, WI

    2016 Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, CA

    2016 Frank Stella: A Retrospective, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX

    2017 Frank Stella Unbound: Literature and Printmaking, Princeton University Art Museum, Princetown, NJ

    2025 Summer Show, Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London, UK

     

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