"My painting is based on the fact that what can be seen there is there... what you see is what you see." Frank Stella 1964
Frank Stella b1936
Although Frank Stella gained early, immediate recognition with his series of impersonal black striped paintings (Black Paintings 1959), he continued to evolve in major ways, never letting his work settle or get stuck in a particular style. Something I believe to be a strong part of my own practice, and focusing on the formal elements of art making.
Stella went on to create increasingly complicated work that seemed to follow a natural progression.
Expanding his initial monochrome palette to bright colours, and later, moving painting into the third dimension through the incorporation of other, non-painterly elements onto the canvas.
Dynamic, tactile and scale are words I would use to describe Stella’s work. His large -scale freestanding sculptures and architectural structures create an illusionistic space. Whilst focusOMG on the basic elements of colour, shape and composition, Stella extends this ‘object-like’ nature of painting constantly exploring and advancing the flat surface of the canvas, incorporating protruding materials and 3 dimensional relief prints which literally enter the viewers space.
I admire the fact that Stella surpassed the precedence of sculpture, constantly battling the rules and regulations of the painted surface and medium. Using aluminium, fibreglass, house and car paint; you get a sense that anything goes and this really resonates with me and my practice.
I am open to change and transformation, sometimes with no definitive direction of work but knowing that I want to create things I see my working pieces as a kind of structure to build on, a base to evolve. Stella has this strong interest.