5 Things You Didn’t Know About Frank Stella

Frank Stella Portrait

Undoubtedly one of the influential figures of American art, Frank Stella’s masterpieces broadened the horizons of contemporary art to make way for his ‘maximalist’ 3D explorations of colour. His progressive approach to materials,including the use of aluminium, cars and generic household paint, changed the course of abstract art in the 1950s.

In honour of his 84th birthday last week, here are five things you didn’t know about Frank Stella.

1. The titles of his paintings are extremely important

Frank Stella, Die Fahne Hoch!, 1959

The seemingly endless abyss of Stella’s signature ‘Black Paintings’ are adorned with cryptic titles. Die Fahne Hoch! (which translates to ‘Hoist the Flag’) is the opening line to Horst Wessel Lied, the Nazi party anthem. The painting also alludes to Jasper John’s work, Flag which seeks to overturn bourgeois sensibilities and answer society’s harder questions about humanity. The utilitarian and imposing nature of Stella’s paintings were described by the artist as ‘dark, very dark’, therefore ‘some of them needed dark titles.’

2. His works were inspired by literature

Frank Stella, Moby Dick from The Waves, 1989

Few artists have been able to suitably capture the grandeur of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, and yet Stella’s paintings and lithographs manage to do just that. The choice to illustrate Melville’s iconic novel wasn’t merely due to its aesthetic potential, but also…

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