Frank Stella
Frank Stella
Frank Philip Stella was an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker, noted for his work in the areas of minimalism and post-painterly abstraction. He lived and worked in New York City for much of his career before moving his studio to Rock Tavern, New York. Stella's work catalyzed the minimalist movement in the late 1950s. He moved to New York City in the late 1950s, where he created works which
"They are more complex to begin with, but their organization, the way they end up being put together, isnt that different. You cant shake your own sensibility. No matter what the concept is; the artists eye decides when its right ... which is a notion of sensibility."
Frank Stella"Time is what you have left.. ..you just march with it and use it the best you can."
Frank Stella"I know what I want, but its physically beyond me now. I can work on what I can handle. Its a playoff between the object and my physical limits."
Frank Stella"If you dont know what Ad Reinhardts) paintings are about, you dont know what painting is about."
Frank Stella"I see my work, as being determined by the fact that I was born in 1936."
Frank Stella"People say that the paintings are always big because theyre striving for effect, but theyre also big so that I dont trip over myself, so that I have room to work, and people can come in and be comfortable."
Frank Stella"They just want to get a handle on you and the idea, and thats enough. Some people sense more but they dont really get into it because its going one step too far. But the whole idea of making art is to be open, to be generous, and absorb the viewer and absorb yourself, to let them go into it. I have to go into all those places in order to make it work."
Frank Stella"I hate to say this. ..its made to order. Then, I disorder it a little bit or, I should say, I reorder it. I wouldnt be so presumptuous to claim that I had the ability to disorder it. I wish I did."
Frank Stella"By 1958 when [Frank] Stella came to New York, the art-buying public had become convinced that Americans could produce major painting, worthy of comparison with the best of earlier European modern art. And it was now clear that this work could be sold at prices that made an artists profession economically feasible."
Frank Stella"The idea in being a painter is to declare an identity. Not just my identity, an identity for me, but an identity big enough for everyone to share in. Isnt that what its all about?!"
Frank Stella"I cant stress enough how important it is, if you are interested at all in painting, to look and to look a great deal at painting. There is no other way to find out about painting. After looking comes imitating. In my own case it was at first largely a technical immersion. How did Kline put down that color? Why did Guston leave the canvas bare at the edges? Why did H. Frankenthaler used unsized canvas. And so on."
Frank Stella"If we are the best, it is only fair that they imitate us."
Frank Stella
