id: 162870 accession number: 2003.355 share license status: Copyrighted url: https://clevelandart.org/art/2003.355 updated: 2023-04-23 11:16:02.486000 Gray Scramble (Single), VIII, 1968. Frank Stella (American, b. 1936). Synthetic polymer paint on canvas; framed: 175.2 x 175.2 x 7.5 cm (69 x 69 x 2 15/16 in.); unframed: 175.2 x 175.2 cm (69 x 69 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of David and Helen Kangesser 2003.355 © Frank Stella / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York title: Gray Scramble (Single), VIII title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1968 creation date earliest: 1968 creation date latest: 1968 current location: 224A Contemporary Corridor creditline: Gift of David and Helen Kangesser copyright: © Frank Stella / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York --- culture: America, 20th century technique: synthetic polymer paint on canvas department: Contemporary Art collection: CONTEMP - Painting type: Painting find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- 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. --- measurements: Framed: 175.2 x 175.2 x 7.5 cm (69 x 69 x 2 15/16 in.); Unframed: 175.2 x 175.2 cm (69 x 69 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art opening date: 2006-06-09T00:00:00 The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (MOCA), Cleveland, OH (June 9-August 20, 2006). title: Contemporary Gallery Reinstallation 2021 opening date: 2021-04-20T04:00:00 Contemporary Gallery Reinstallation 2021. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * MOCA Cleveland (6/9/2006 - 8/20/2006): "The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art", no. 108, p. 122, color repr. p. 5 & p. 76. --- PROVENANCE --- fun fact: "Scramble" refers to the alternating, sometimes disorienting organization of the colored squares that darken in hue toward the center. digital description: wall description: Stella’s early paintings represent his reaction against the seemingly loose, gestural brushstroke associated with Abstract Expressionism. In Gray Scramble (Single), VIII, Stella combines bands of sequential values and of differing colors. In contrast to the depth created by the alternating light and dark bands of color, the uniformity of the paint surface emphasizes the two-dimensionality of the canvas. Using commercial paint and a house-painter’s brush, Stella carefully crafted his works to create an immediate visual impression of simplicity and monumentality. The strict geometry and crisp edges of the painted bands illustrate Stella’s desire for precision, whereas the resulting symmetry contributes to an “all-over” quality reminiscent of Jackson Pollock’s drip paintings. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Sims, Lowery Stokes, Cleveland Museum of Art, and Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland. The Persistence of Geometry : Form, Content, and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2006. page number: Reproduced: p. 5, 76, no. 108; mentioned: p.122 url: https://ingallslibrary.on.worldcat.org/oclc/71296451 Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: P. 118 url: --- IMAGES