Frank
Stella

United States • born in 1936

Biography and information

Frank Stella (Eng. Frank Stella; born May 12, 1936, Malden, Massachusetts) is an American artist and post-modern sculptor, one of theorists and practitioners minimalism. Stella became famous at the age of 23 when he created the Black Painting series of works - he became the youngest artist whose solo exhibition was held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He was one of 42 participants in the landmark exhibition “Primary Constructions”, which became a reference point in the history of the new art movement - minimalism.

Features of the work of Frank Stella: Stella painted the first paintings with interior paint and with the help of ordinary paint brushes - these were huge canvases on which the geometric pattern consisted of unpainted fragments of the canvas between black stripes. Stella in her artistic quest comes from creativityabstract expressionists and Jasper Johnsbut it’s important for him to deprive a work of art of any kind of representativeness. A painting or sculpture for Stella has self-sufficient value, without reference to the real world or emotions. He belongs to the statement, which is most often quoted in conversations about minimalism: "What you see is what you see." In the 1970s, Stella began to use non-standard forms of canvas, creating an almost sculptural volume on the surface of paintings with the help of metal elements. The farther, the more his work becomes saturated with details, complicated compositionally. This period in his work, Stella himself calls "maximalism."

Famous works of Frank Stella: "Black painting", "Empress of India".