Frank Stella and Abstract Art

Frank Stella and Abstract Art

US 1936-

Frank Stella is a groundbreaking painter, printmaker, and sculptor. Always stretching the boundaries, he is one of the most highly regarded artists still working today. Born to first-generation Sicilians in a small town in Massachusetts, his father was a doctor, and his mother painted landscapes. After graduating from Princeton University, he moved to New York in 1958. His minimalist geometric paintings evolved to abstract, and he pioneered the concept of the shaped canvas- describing his approach as ‘maximalist’ painting, because of its sculptural qualities. His abstract prints proved as innovative as his paintings, including lithography, screen printing, etching, and offset lithography a method which he is credited with inventing. His approach to materials is just as revolutionary, comprising house and car paint, cast aluminum, fiberglass, and the latest 3D printing techniques. His work was featured in an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art before he was 25, and he had his first retrospective at the museum when he was just 34. One of the very few artists who integrated the narrative in paintings, in 1983, Stella was invited to become a Professor of Poetry at Harvard. In 2009, Frank Stella was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama. Stella continues to live and work in New York and remains active in protecting the rights of artists.

Over the past two weeks we explored Abstract Art and the work of Frank Stella, and several other contemporary artists inspired by and site him as an influence,

Some of the concepts were creating surface, design, color, composition, patterns, organic shapes, contrast, layering and 3D effects. We used a combination of paint sticks, markers and brush pens for these pieces.