FRANK STELLA IRREGULAR POLYGONS1965–66 APRIL 8–JULY 24 2011 CANADAY GALLERY A G

FRANK STELLA IRREGULAR POLYGONS1965–66 APRIL 8–JULY 24 2011 CANADAY GALLERY A GUIDE TO THE EXHIBITION 2 3 Use this Guide in the Exhibition The 11 monumental paintings in the Irregular Polygons series are presented without explanatory labels in order for the works to have the maximum visual impact without distraction. This guide is provided as your own set of portable labels. The text is excerpted and adapted from the exhibition’’s catalogue written by Brian Kennedy, curator of the exhibition and President, Director, and CEO of the Toledo Museum of Art.* Because Frank Stella’’s abstract art engages so essentially with the basic elements and principles of art and design, the text also highlights these fundamentals. Other resources provided in the exhibition include: "WJEFPFYDFSQUPG'SBOL4UFMMBGSPNPainters Painting: The New York Art Scene 1940–1970 (1973) 7JEFPPG5."EJSFDUPS#SJBO,FOOFEZUBMLJOHBCPVUUIFIrregular Polygons "'BNJMZ(VJEFUPIFMQQBSFOUTBOEDIJMESFOMPPLBUDPMPS MJOF BOETIBQF in Frank Stella’’s abstract art "O¤BDUJWJUZBSFB¥XIFSFWJTJUPSTPGBMMBHFTDBOXSJUFQPFNT ESBXUIFJS own irregular polygons, create irregular polygons using magnetic shapes, and read more about Frank Stella and abstract art Please do not touch the works of art. Frank Stella: Irregular Polygons was curated by TMA Director Brian Kennedy, while he was director at the Hood Museum of Art, and organized by the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College. Special exhibitions supported in part by the generous members of the Toledo Museum of Art and the Ohio Arts Council. p 5 Chocorua IV p 6 Conway I p 7 Effingham IV p 9 Moultonville II p 10 Ossipee II p 12 Sunapee II p 13 Tuftonboro III p 14 Union I p 15 Wolfeboro IV p 8 Moultonboro II p 11 Sanbornville III The paintings in this guide are arranged alphabetically by title. 4 5 Frank Stella: Irregular Polygons When presenting Frank Stella with the National Medal of the Arts on February 25, 2010, President Barack Obama described the renowned BCTUSBDU BSUJTU BT ¤B MFHFOE GPS IJT BDDPNQMJTINFOUT BT POF PG UIF world’’s most innovative painters and sculptors. His sophisticated visual experiments——often transcending boundaries between painting, print NBLJOH BOETDVMQUVSF£BSFNPEFSONBTUFSQJFDFT¥ Since he first burst on the New York art scene in 1958, Frank Stella (American, born 1936) has had a long and prolific career at the forefront of abstract art. A consistent innovator who prefers to produce works in series, he has immersed himself in visual thinking and creating, according UPDFSUBJOLFZBSUJTUJDQSJODJQMFT¤-JOF QMBOF WPMVNFBOEQPJOU JOTQBDF¥ The Irregular Polygons series of 1965––66 is startlingly dramatic and original. Although based on simple geometries, these paintings comprise one of the most complex artistic statements of Stella’’s career. Each of the 11 compositions combines varying numbers of shapes to create daringly irregular outlines. Stella made four versions of each composition, altering their color combinations. These asymmetrical canvases play with illusion, confronting Stella’’s previous emphasis on flatness while anticipating his career-‐long exploration of space and volume in both painting and sculpture. Along with the 11 Irregular Polygons——each of which is named for a small town in New Hampshire where Stella’’s father took him on fishing trips as a young boy——this exhibition includes preparatory drawings for the paintings and the print series Eccentric Polygons (1974), which was based on the Irregular Polygons. Shown here together for the first time in the same room, the Irregular Polygons PGGFS BO FYDJUJOH PQQPSUVOJUZ UP FOHBHF XJUI UIF ¤DPNQMFY TJNQMJDJUZ¥UIBUJTUIFQBSBEPYPG4UFMMB§TBSU Chocorua I Chocorua III Chocorua II Chocorua IV 1966 Fluorescent alkyd and epoxy paints on canvas “There’s a very shallow type of illusion going on in Chocorua. But once you’re committed to doing this in three-dimensions, then it really would be a pyramid inside a cube.” Frank Stella The central theme of the Irregular Polygons series is the relationship of shapes, which interpenetrate, interlock with, and butt up against each other. Because the abutting or impinging shapes do not overlap (except in Sanbornville; see p. 10), the illusion of depth is caused mainly by the value differentiation of the colors. By mitering the lightning-‐like band that cushions the triangle, Stella reinforces the square’’s ability to contain the triangle, rather than appear to be trying to eject it. (Picture the band without the mitered corners and imagine how that would change the composition.) Stella associates the triangle in Chocorua with Mount Chocorua in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. When he began working on the Irregular Polygons, ¤UIFZXFSFTPJNNFEJBUFMZMBOETDBQFBOENPVOUBJOPVT ¥ that he decided to name them after places he had visited with his father during his boyhood. Space, one of the elements of art, is the area around or within objects. In a two-‐dimensional image space refers to the arrangement of components on the surface. The illusion of depth of space may be created in two-‐dimensions by various means, including overlapping, proportion, and color values. 6 7 Conway II Conway IV Conway III Conway I 1966 Fluorescent alkyd and epoxy paints on canvas A notch at Conway in the White Mountains was a favorite fishing place for Frank Stella while on childhood vacations with his father.1 In the painting named for this location, a parallelogram is locked into and supporting a rectangle, creating a diagonal, left-‐to-‐right movement. “What I had in mind was a swinging mirror in my mother’s bedroom. This was a rectangular mirror mounted on two pieces of wood with pivots.”2 Frank Stella If Stella had adopted the furniture reference literally, the mirror (the parallelogram) would have been above its bureau (the rectangle). He has confirmed since that he preferred the composition with the parallelogram below. The eight-‐inch-‐wide stripe used in all of the Irregular Polygons is especially pronounced in Conway, because it wraps around the base and left side but does not extend into the interior. There, another band of a different color completes the border around the parallelogram. This causes the shape to appear to swivel. Movement is a principle of design. It refers to the way shapes, lines, colors, and forms direct the eye around a composition or interact with each other to suggest motion. Diagonals often create a sense of movement in art. %FlNGHAM) %FlNGHAM))) %FlNGHAM)) Effingham IV 1966 Fluorescent alkyd and epoxy paints on canvas The shapes in Effingham butt up against each other rather than interlock. The interior band, however, is itself interlocking, such that the painting, in Stella’’s words, ¤XJOETVQJUTPXOTQSJOH*UDVSMTPOJUTFMG¥ 1 The composition is complicated because: “…the larger shape could propel the parallelogram out. The large shape secures the smaller one by wrapping its band around it. It is in equilibrium and the smaller shape is under tension. But the smaller shape supports the larger one, so it will not fall off. The painting is up in the air, and the large shape needs the smaller one to hold it up.”2 Art historian Michael Fried described the effect of the open top of Effingham XJUIPVUBCPSEFSJOHCBOE BTIBWJOH¤BOBTUPOJTIJOHWFSUJDBMBDDFMFSBUJPO  PSTPBSJOH PSSFMFBTF¥3 Balance is one of the principles of design and relates to the sense of visual equilibrium in a work of art. Balance can be symmetrical or asymmetrical, but depends on how elements of varying visual weights or sizes in an image are arranged around a fulcrum point. In the quotation above, Stella explains the interdependence of the two shapes. Where do you see balance in this connection? 8 9 Destroyed ŝŶĂĮƌĞ Moultonboro I Moultonboro IV Moultonboro III Moultonboro II 1966 Fluorescent alkyd and epoxy paints on canvas Moultonboro features a triangle wedged into the top right corner of a shape that the viewer’’s eye may or may not complete as a rectangle. The triangle fits into a Z-‐like band. ¤5IJTHFTUVSF UIF; IBTUPCFTFQBSBUFETPUIBUJU EPFTO§USVOJOUPFJUIFSUIFCBDLHSPVOEPSUIFPUIFSQJFDF ¥ Stella explains.1 Each shape had to be distinct, and Stella achieved this via the wide Z banding but also the fine white line of raw canvas on either side of it. “I always leave a space, because I don’t want the confusion of shapes. I want the independence of each unit, so it has white on each side. It is painted independently. Each item is doubly independent. Nothing touches each other.”2 The triangle can be read as tilting, slanting, or sloping from the picture plane (the flat surface of the painting). Critic Rosalind Krauss remarked on the spatial ambiguity in the Irregular PolygonsJO¤5IJTJTUIFJMMVTJPO UIBUUIFQJDUVSFTBSFGPMEJOHPSCVDLMJOHœJOUPUISFFEJNFOTJPOBMPCKFDUT¥3 The effect is compounded by the changes in valueDBVTFECZUIF%BZ(MP fluorescent alkyd and epoxy paint surfaces, which make the colored shapes appear lighter or darker as the viewer moves before the painting. Value, one of the elements of art and an aspect of color, is the degree of lightness or darkness in an image. When colors are close in value, shapes appear to flatten and to be closely connected in space. If values contrast, shapes appear to be separated in space and some stand out, seeming to project or recede. Moultonville I Moultonville IV Moultonville III Moultonville II 1966 Fluorescent alkyd and epoxy paints on canvas “Moultonville sits in a way. It’s kind of nice, and it has a base, a wedge at the top and this spring band to the right that holds the Z band in place. The wedge sits on top of the field and props up the background and the rectangular figure. The rectangle is uploads/Geographie/ stella-guide.pdf

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