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Frank Stella (American, born 1936),
Nogaro
, 1982
mixed media on aluminum, 115 x 120 x 24 in.
Gift of the Phillip Schrager Collection of Contemporary Art from Terri, Harley, and Beth Schrager, 2014.2
A seminal figure in American postwar abstraction, Frank Stella’s earliest work employed bold lines to explore complex variations of basic geometric patterns, while in the late 1960s, large fields of saturated color emerged in his paintings. Perhaps his most important transition occurred in the 1970s, however, when he began experimenting with relief. Stella’s work became increasingly volumetric, and by the 1980s, he had completely abandoned the austere flatness of his early canvases.
Nogaro is from Stella’s Circuit series (1980–84), twenty-two wall-mounted paintings all named for cities with automobile racetracks. These dynamic, curvilinear constructions reveal the loose approach to form that Stella achieved late in his career and epitomize his deft handling of three-dimensional space. References to the traditional picture plane have been eliminated, allowing the wall to become the frame that contains the “painting.” This direct engagement with site would prefigure the artist’s more recent forays into public art projects and architectural design.
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