id: 143270 accession number: 1967.208 share license status: Copyrighted url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1967.208 updated: 2024-03-26 01:59:19.332000 Star of Persia I, 1967. Frank Stella (American, b. 1936), Gemini G. E. L.. Color lithograph; sheet: 66 x 81.1 cm (26 x 31 15/16 in.); image: 57.2 x 66 cm (22 1/2 x 26 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Harold T. Clark Educational Extension Fund 1967.208 © Frank Stella / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York title: Star of Persia I title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1967 creation date earliest: 1967 creation date latest: 1967 current location: creditline: The Harold T. Clark Educational Extension Fund copyright: © Frank Stella / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York --- culture: America, 20th century technique: color lithograph department: Prints collection: PR - Lithograph type: Print find spot: catalogue raisonne: Axsom 1 --- CREATORS * Frank Stella (American, b. 1936) - artist Frank Stella was born in Malden, Massachusetts in 1936 and studied at Princeton University. Stella's auspicious start in New York, only a year after his graduation from Princeton, was an exhibit of the Black Paintings of 1959-60. Viewed as a precursor to Minimalism, these pivotal works led to his inclusion in Sixteen Americans at the Museum of Modern Art and the notice of its director, Alfred Barr, who purchased a painting, The Marriage of Squalor and Reason. With their emphasis on control and rationalism, the Black Paintings opened genuinely new paths for abstraction and exerted a profound influence on the art of the 1960s. A major shift from this work began to develop in 1966 with his Irregular Polygons, canvases in the shapes of irregular geometric forms and characterized by large unbroken areas of color. As this new vocabulary developed into a more open and color-oriented pictorial language, the works underwent a metamorphosis in size, expressing an affinity with architecture in their monumentality. Stella also introduced curves into his works, marking the beginning of the Protractor series. Harran II evinces the great vaulting compositions and lyrically decorative patterns that are the leitmotif of the series, which is based on the semicircular drafting instrument used for measuring and constructing angles. In the 1970s, Stella's work moved toward three-dimensional paintings on shaped canvases and later toward wall constructions with multiple components, ever projecting further from their supports. Stella's second retrospective at MOMA in 1987 concluded with a series of daring reliefs based on Melville's Moby Dick. These works further blurred any boundary between paintings and sculpture. In 1983-84 Stella gave the Charles Eliot Norton lectures at Harvard University. These lectures, later published under the title Working Space, marked a critical juncture for the artist. A spirited defense of abstraction, they could well sum up Stella's approach to painting and have acted as a manifesto for his work since. Since the 1980s, the artist has completed a number of large-scale works for public spaces, confirming Stella's abiding interest in architecture. A vast commission during the early 90s, involving the Princess of Wales Theater in Toronto, has led to a series of architectural proposals and commissions over the past eight years, including his Bandshell for the City of Miami. * Gemini G. E. L. - published by --- measurements: Sheet: 66 x 81.1 cm (26 x 31 15/16 in.); Image: 57.2 x 66 cm (22 1/2 x 26 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: description: English vellum graph watermarks: inscriptions: inscription: lower left in pencil: 82/92 F. Stella 67 translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Less is More: Minimal Prints opening date: 2013-06-16T00:00:00 Less is More: Minimal Prints. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 16-October 20, 2013). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS --- PROVENANCE (Franklin Siden Gallery, Inc.) date: footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS --- IMAGES