The year 1958 was a significant one for contemporary artist Frank Stella. Born in the suburban town of Malden, and a graduate of Phillips Andover Academy and Princeton, Stella moved to Manhattan in 1958 to begin his life as a painter.
Harvard's Sackler Museum show, "Frank Stella 1958," explores this first year of independent work for Stella, examining it not only as an introduction to the rest of his catalog, but as a single body of work to contemplate on its own terms. It explores his progression from bold color usage in what he termed his "wanderings" to "the final solution," his characteristic black paintings of the early 1960s.
All around him, Stella was confronted with varying styles of art in New York: Abstract Expressionism with its intense emotional nature was ending its run, and the Minimalist movement wouldn't take hold for another few years. As a result, these pieces from 1958 express an intensity and exuberance befitting a young painter enamored with his new surroundings both spatially and ideologically. Stella bought cheap supplies and painted on the largest canvases he could fit into his studio.
The show begins with "Plum Island [Luncheon on the Grass]," a work which, with its harmonious bands of greens, pinks, blue, and yellow, reflects Mark Rothko's influence. This painting also shows Stella's interest in art history, as its subtitle is a pastoral theme approached by many of Stella's predecessors, including Giorgione, Manet and Picasso.
The influence of Robert Rauschenberg's Combines can also be found in Stella's mixed media pieces which feature bits of newspaper, aluminum foil and strings in addition to paint on wood.
Stella also painted after his new city. "Coney Island" is a bright piece of work which contrasts two of his favorite forms, stripes and solids. The horizontal stripes in red and light orange cover the canvas and a royal blue square sits in the center, making it oddly reminiscent of an American flag. The painting makes the viewer wonder if he or she is meant to read the actual iconic place, Coney Island in Brooklyn, into the colors and forms Stella chose, or if he gave the work an arbitrary name. Imprecise and perceptible, Stella's lines have a painterly quality, and he lets some of the colors drip into each other to tie it together.
For "Grape Island," a piece similar in style to "Coney Island," it seems as if Stella applied a crimson color on the whole canvas, and then applied yellow stripes with a light touch, letting the deep red show through, just as he did for the green square in the middle. These colors are reminiscent of actual grapes but also remind us of Stella's Massachusetts upbringing, as Grape Island can be found on Boston Harbor. This painting has a very rough texture, as if he used a dry brush with minimal amounts of paint.
Besides specific places, Stella was also interested in depicting the world around him. "Blue Horizon" is a rhythmic composition which looks like the sun setting over the ocean. It was painted with light ceylon blue throughout and has slightly wavy, lightly-painted horizontal lines which modulate between red and black. Faint vertical lines of pentimenti slightly alter the rhythm of the horizontal lines as well as some spots of drips, thicker splotches and bumps of paint. These irregularities help pick up light differently throughout the painting.
Towards the end of the show, the painting "Delta" can be seen as right on the verge of Stella's Black Paintings. It is composed of lines in V-shape pattern, the center of which leads to a set of vertical lines with an imposing triangle at the right, and a smaller one on the left. These triangles seem to propel the motion towards the eventual convergence of line in the middle. Stella used black over shades of red which range from deep brown/red to pink/red. The intensity of line and the nearly exclusive use of black in this piece help introduce the nearby "Mono Castle," a black
painting.
This piece is large and features two half squares facing away from each other with mini half squares within. Stella has completely reduced his palette to black, and the whiteness of the lines is actually the bare canvas showing through. The lines' intensity shifts, causing them to buzz with a quiet pulse. While they appear straight, the lines are actually a little off-center and form a diamond shape in the center of the canvas.
Stella's non-objective work puts the onus of interpretation on the viewer; titles notwithstanding, it can be difficult to understand what's going on, which can distress some or help others feel liberated in their interpretations. "Frank Stella 1958" is a show that puts Stella's work in a nice, neat order, helping to show the way - from color to black, and from expressionistic to the bare minimum.
