Frank Stella, a master among abstract artists of his era, has passed away at the age of 87

Frank Stella, who initially embraced a stark, monochrome aesthetic, gradually incorporated metallic tones and then vibrant colors into his work, displaying them in various geometric configurations. His innovative shaped canvases first appeared in the Aluminium series at his debut solo exhibition at Castelli in 1960. During his early years in New York, Stella's creations were featured in numerous pivotal shows at the city's top cultural institutions, including "Geometric Abstraction" (1962) at the Whitney Museum of American Art, "The Shaped Canvas" (1964) and "Systemic Painting" (1966) at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and "The Structure of Color" at the Whitney in 1971.

Born in 1936 in Malden, Massachusetts, a suburb just north of Boston, and raised in the adjacent town of Melrose, Stella moved directly to New York after his education. He supported himself as a house decorator while studying painting under Patrick Morgan at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, and later at Princeton University under art historian William Seitz and abstract artist Stephen Greene, graduating in 1958. By 1959, Stella was already participating in group exhibitions at Oberlin College, Ohio, and in New York at Tibor de Nagy Gallery and Leo Castelli, leading up to his significant inclusion in MoMA's "Sixteen Americans".

MoMA Retrospectives

 In 1965, Frank Stella, alongside contemporaries like Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Claes Oldenburg, and Jim Dine, was selected to represent the United States at the Venice Biennale. By 1967, Stella had launched his Protractor series at Leo Castelli. These works, characterized by their vibrant colors and large-scale semi-circular shapes named after the drafting tool, solidified his impact on contemporary abstract art. In 1970, at just 33 years old, Stella became the youngest artist to be honored with a retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). His second comprehensive exhibition at MoMA, "Frank Stella: Works from 1970 to 1987" (1987-88), began with his Polish Village series. These pieces, a tribute to synagogues destroyed in Poland during World War II, marked his transition from low-relief collages to more complex high-relief constructions using materials like felt and cardboard.

In a 1999 interview with The Art Newspaper, Stella reflected on this evolution in his work: "The relief paintings forced me to engage more actively with the real world. I found myself going out to procure materials like felt, plywood, and honeycomb aluminium. This process brought new elements into my art, shifting from the controlled environment of the studio to a more exploratory use of materials. Picasso also ventured beyond traditional boundaries in his use of materials, though by today's standards, he pushed the limits more in terms of material innovation than physical exploration."

Reflecting on his early career in 1999, during a year when he held a sculpture exhibition at Bernard Jacobson in London, Frank Stella remarked on the changes in his professional circle, noting, "I have outgrown or outlived the dealers from the 1960s. Larry Rubin is retired; Leo Castelli has passed away [he died that same year]. I actually grew up in a different generation, and they are all gone now. My world is past and gone. I'm still out there hustling to keep going, but I don't really fit into today's tough world."

Stella evolved his practice to include large-scale sculptures and collaborations with architects such as Richard Meier—a friend for 65 years. Together, they worked on projects like the Federal Courthouse in Phoenix (opened in 2000), the Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona (1995), the Weishaupt Forum near Ulm in southern Germany (1993), and the Jubilee Church in Rome (2003), as well as with Santiago Calatrava. One notable project is The Michael Kohlhaas Curtain (2008), a 30-meter-long Stella banner painting draped over a ring-shaped frame designed by Calatrava.

Stella's Exploration of Painting's History

In the academic years of 1983-1984, Stella delivered the Charles Eliot Norton lectures at Harvard University, titled "Working Space" (subsequently published by Harvard in 1985). In these lectures, he praised the baroque and other historical styles for their poetic and constructive use of space and volume. During the 2017-2018 "Frank Stella: Experiment and Change" exhibition at NSU Art Museum, Fort Lauderdale, which featured over 300 of his works, both Stella and the curator Bonnie Clearwater discussed his deep engagement with the history of painting. Stella recounted an early encounter with Rogier van der Weyden’s Crucifixion Diptych (circa 1460) at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which he described as a seminal influence on his understanding of what art could aspire to achieve. In the exhibition catalogue, Clearwater noted that for Stella, the compelling visual impact of a painting was a more crucial aim than adhering to the doctrines of Modernism.

Barbara Rose, Stella's first wife, emerged as a prominent art critic and penned the influential 1965 essay "ABC Art" for Art in America, which played a crucial role in shaping the understanding of Minimalism. In her essay, Rose suggested that the "self-effacing anonymity" observed in the works of New York artists like Donald Judd, Robert Morris, and her then-husband Stella (they separated in 1969) was a counter-reaction to the unrestrained personal expression prevalent at the time, as well as a formal response to the prevailing painterly excesses.

Stella's Candid Approach to Art

Frank Stella was known for his straightforward discourse about his artwork. His well-known statement "what you see is what you see" came during a conversation with art historian Bruce Glaser. When Glaser responded, "That doesn’t leave too much afterwards, does it?" Stella retorted, "I don’t know what else there is." Reflecting on this decades later in an interview with The Art Newspaper, Stella reiterated, "I’ve said it many times: abstraction can be a lot of things. It can, in a sense, tell a story, even if in the end it’s a pictorial story."

In a 1999 interview with Norbert Lynton for The Art Newspaper, Frank Stella shared insights on how he perceived the evolution of his work over the first four decades of his career. "People often ask, 'Why do you change?' My response is that I really don’t change that much. The shifts in my work stem from two main feelings: a bit of dissatisfaction and a bit of hope, always in search of something new. People expect you to 'find yourself' and establish a consistent style, but artists generally want to keep exploring," he explained.

Embracing Cutting-Edge Technology

Stella was also renowned for his early adoption and innovative use of new technologies. From the late 1980s, he engaged with computer-aided design (CAD) and began utilizing 3D printing technologies by the mid-2000s. As reported by The Art Newspaper, Stella used 3D printing to create metal and resin components for his polychrome sculpture series, Scarlatti Kirkpatrick. This series drew inspiration both from the harpsichord sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti, an 18th-century Italian composer, and the scholarly work of Ralph Kirkpatrick, a 20th-century American musicologist.

In a 2013 interview with The Art Newspaper, Ron Labaco, a curator at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, discussed how 3D printing technology allowed Frank Stella to create projections from the wall in ways that traditional methods, which would have been too cumbersome and heavy, could not achieve. Labaco included Stella's work in an exhibition focused on computer-enabled art titled "Out of Hand: Materialising the Postdigital," which ran from 2013 to 2014.

In 2022, Frank Stella launched his first NFT (non-fungible token) as part of his "Geometries" project, in collaboration with the Artists Rights Society (ARS), which was established in 1987 to protect artists' rights through copyright, licensing, and monitoring visual artists in the United States. This partnership highlighted Stella's long-standing involvement with and support for the ARS. Katarina Feder, the director of business development at ARS, reported to The Art Newspaper, "We sold out all 2,100 tokens and, crucially, generated resale royalties from secondary sales, a cause Frank has long advocated for." 

Through its digital division ARSNL, the Artists Rights Society (ARS) engaged NFT collectors by sharing a process video and a curatorial statement from art analytics expert Jason Bailey. "Digital collectors became enamored with Frank and his creations," noted Katarina Feder, "and many went on to create their own derivative works, which Frank permitted. We presented some of these derivatives to Frank, and he was delighted with them." The appeal of the NFT drop for Stella, as he explained to the NFT magazine Right Click Save, was that "NFTs, in an abstract sense, seem like they might address some of the challenges posed by the increasing reproducibility in imaging and fabrication technologies. More tangibly, they offer a mechanism for artists to claim the resale rights I believe we should possess."

Stella’s progressive stance on the NFT drop, encouraging collectors to both create derivatives and 3D print the artwork, further cemented his reputation as a champion for artists' rights. Gretchen Andrew, in her Art Decoded column for The Art Newspaper, highlighted Stella's dedication: "Frank has always been as concerned with the materiality and the tactile qualities of his works as he has been with advocating for the rights of his peers. For years, he has been an active voice in the push for resale rights."

The Stars Series

Among the most celebrated works of Frank Stella’s later career is his Stars series, featuring large, multi-pointed, freestanding stars. A notable installation from this series included a pair of seven-meter tall stars displayed in the courtyard of the Royal Academy in London in 2015. In 2021, Stella unveiled Jasper’s Split Star, a stainless steel sculpture, at the plaza of the new 7 World Trade Center in New York City. This sculpture served as a poignant symbolic replacement for two of Stella’s large paintings—Laestrygonia I and Telepilus Laestrygonia II, each measuring 10 feet by 10 feet—which were previously housed in the lobby of the original 7 World Trade Center before it was destroyed in the 9/11 attacks.

The Lasting Legacy of Frank Stella: Innovation and Impact in Abstract Art

Frank Stella, an indomitable force in abstract art for over sixty years, leaves behind an immense legacy marked by pioneering contributions to the field. His passing at age 87 signifies the end of an era but also underscores the lasting impact of his work, from the groundbreaking "Black Paintings" to his innovative large-scale sculptures and collaborations with architects. Stella's explorations spanned the realms of form, color, and spatial dynamics, reshaping the dialogue around abstract art and its intersections with modern technologies and new media, including NFTs. His dedication to evolving his artistic expression while advocating for artists' rights highlighted his role not just as a creator but as a visionary thinker in the art world. Stella's journey from a young painter in New York to a venerated icon whose works challenged and transcended the aesthetic boundaries of his time leaves a durable imprint on the canvas of contemporary art.