Frank Stella Biography
Frank Philip Stella 1936 Malden, MA.

Frank Stella is considered one of the most influential American artists of the post-war generation. Throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s, he helped shepherd painting beyond Abstract Expressionism and toward Minimalism. Stella’s output has evolved from black-and-white striped paintings (which he created at the start of his career) to the irregularly shaped canvases of his bold 1970s “Polish Village” series, to the 3D-printed sculptures he produced in the 2010s. While the artist has a reputation for stylistic innovation, he views all of his works as part of a continuum. Stella cemented his place in art history in 1970 when, at age 33, he became the youngest artist to ever mount a retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art. He has since enjoyed major solo exhibitions at the Royal Academy of Arts, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Kunstmuseum Basel, among other institutions, and his work belongs in public collections worldwide. His pieces regularly sell for seven figures at auction.

Throughout his career, Stella shifted to a more exuberant use of color, shapes and curving forms. He calls his artistic development an evolution from Minimalism to Maximalism.

Stella's virtually relentless experimentation has made him a key figure in American modernism, helping give rise to such developments as Minimalism, Post-Painterly Abstraction, and Color Field Painting.

Movements and Styles: Minimalism, Hard-edge Painting, Post-Painterly Abstraction