Quarter 2 Awareness Blog Post
- Dec 19, 2024
- 2 min read
Frank Stella:
For this Awareness post I chose to research Frank Stella (name twin!) who uses bold color combinations in his geometric abstraction, sometimes reducing his palette to just two colors for contrast and visual impact similar to a color schemes which I have been playing off of recently. Stella was born in Massachusetts in 1936 and studied history at Princeton University before his move to New York in 1958. After moving to the city, Stella became immersed in abstract expressionism where he was inspired by the work of Jasper Johns. It was this work which inspired Stella's series of Black Paintings of 1958-1960. This series opened doors for Stella and in 1970 he became the youngest artist to be ever granted a solo exhibition at MOMA. Stella continued to work in New York, NY as well as a separate studio in Tavern, New York. Today, his work can be viewed in the National Gallery, The Art Institute of Chicago, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
In this work, Stella uses the duller teal and cream yellow to make the kelly green in the center of the triangle and rhombus really sing which is beautiful and captivating. In a color scheme like this, it is amazing that he was able to make the green pop so much with so few colors which is something I aim to master in the future.
In this painting, Stella creates a really interesting foreground-middleground- background composition which is really effectively achieved with the layering of several different colors. You can almost see the way the colors bend in a 3D perspective which is so interesting because the colors are flat spaces with only one value with the exception of the yellow which has 2 values. The effectiveness of the color in creating this illusory layering is something I would really like to play with, especially focusing on being intentional with colors chosen in my compositions.
For more information on Frank Stella: https://www.moma.org/artists/5640
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