Frank Stella
Frank Stella was a well-known contemporary New York-based painter, sculptor, and printmaker. During his lifetime, his artwork focused on various periods in contemporary art, such as Minilams, Modern art, Abstract expressionism, and Modernism. Within his realm of abstract expressionism, Stella’s work had motifs of geometric shapes and stars. In February 2024, three months before he died on May 4 th, 2024, his final piece of art was featured and presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Jacksonville, Florida. Stella’s final piece was an installation focusing on his iconic motifs of shapes and stars. It was Stella’s last love letter and contribution to the art world.
Stella was born on May 12th, 1936, in Massachusetts. He later became an American artist with an eye for contemporary abstract expressionism. In 1958, after graduating college, Stella moved to New York City, where he began his career as an artist. His abstract expressionist ideals were Franz Kline and Jackson Pollock, who he was introduced to in college. 1960 Stella’s first major solo art piece was Black Paintings at the Leo Castelli Gallery. Later, the success of Black Paintings led to a series. However, Stella eventually moved on to projects such as Aluminum Paintings and Copper Paintings. His early artwork consisted of “geometrically shaped canvases, challenging the traditional rectangular format.” It was a motif in his early work, shapes, and geometry. Stella did away with traditional canvases and challenged the given space within a canvas. MOCA Jacksonville justified, “Stella has continuously explored the possibilities of the expression of visual space.” By the 1970s, Stella had made a name for himself. He was the youngest artist represented and recognized at New York’s Museum of Modern Art.
MOCA Jacksonville has been a massive supporter of Stella’s work. Currently, MOCA is showcasing Stella’s sculpture “Jacksonville Stacked Stars,” which is part of Stella’s major project, Project Atrium: Frank Stella. The sculpture has been at MOCA since February 29th, 2024, and will remain until November 3rd, 2024. The sculpture was designed specifically for MOCA’s 100th anniversary and is Stella’s final piece of art. MOCA states, “Stella has returned to the star as a motif, exploring its form, both abstract and figurative, in multiple variations of two-dimensional, free-standing, and wall-relief sculptural shapes.” Extraordinarily, Stella had used “sophisticated computer models” to create the “Jacksonville Stacked Stars,” which enabled him to provoke the normalcy of gravity and traditional sculpting.
Interestingly, this isn’t the first time Stella’s work has been featured at MOCA Jacksonville. In late 2018, his exhibition Frank Stella Unbound: Literature and Printmaking was displayed. The exhibit focused on a print series and the printmaking of songs and novels, such as Had Gadya, Italian Folktales, Moby Dick, and Dictionary of Imaginary Places. Stella originated all these prints featuring iconic and different forms of literature between 1984 and 1999. According to MOCA’s website, they wrote, “Through these four bodies of work, Stella evolved printmaking projects of unprecedented scale and complexity that both transformed the artist’s visual language- as well as his working process in all media- and represent a technical and expressive milestone in printmaking.” Every artist has their legacy, and Stella left his work at MOCA by sharing his vision of visual art through literature and printmaking.
Frank Stella was a New York-based artist who, after a 65-year career, left a legacy of abstract expressionism. Like anyone with a dream, he went to New York City to become the artist he dreamed of. Now, after his passing, his work is celebrated in New York City and Jacksonville, Florida, among other places.
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