by Joan K. Yanni
Estoril Five I, an intricate, somewhat mystifying print, was
created by renowned painter and printmaker Frank Stella, one of the most
influential and innovative artists of our time.
Stella was born in
Malden, Massachusetts, in 1936 and educated at Phillips Academy and
Princeton. He became interested in painting at college, and after
graduation in 1957 moved to New York City, rented a studio and supported
himself, at least partially, by house painting.
His talent was quickly
recognized. His first exhibition came in 1959, and his first solo show
followed in 1960 at the Castelli Gallery. Since then he has appeared in
almost every exhibition—national and international—of contemporary abstract
painting.
In his earlier years,
Stella was determined to create a rational and orderly art in response to the
frantic and emotional abstract expressionist school. The "pin
stripe" series was the result—canvases with symmetrical 2 1/2 inch black
stripes. His idea was to eliminate illusionistic space and show that a
painting was nothing more than a flat surface with paint on it.
He did his paintings in
series. He began to cut notches out of the centers, corners and sides of
his canvases so that the shape of the paintings would become part of the
design. L's, T's, and geometrical shapes replaced the usual rectangular
form of the picture.
After his black series,
he gave color a primary role, with geometric shapes painted in brilliant shades
of fluorescent paint. His geometric shapes seemed to move back and forth in space,
and thus he returned to three-dimensional illusions. Next he experimented
with color combinations, and his paintings became larger—often ten to twenty
feet in width. Some of his recent works—paintings or sculpture?—are a
combination of canvas and wood and
actually extend out from the wall by five inches or more. In many
of his works French curves, S-curves, protractors, and other architects' tools
can be seen.
Stella's interest in
printmaking began in 1967, during a time when recognized painters and master
printers began to collaborate in a revival of lithography. He met printer
Kenneth Tyler and they joined in producing a number of print series based on
his paintings. Stella did the design, Tyler the printing. The black
series paintings had been done in 1958-59; the black series prints were done in
1967.
Our Estoril Five I is
one of his Circuit (race track circuit) series, named after race
tracks: Estoril (Portugal), Imola (Sicily), and Tellegada
(Alabama). Stella has always been interested in auto racing. He
designed a BMW racing car in 1976, and traveled with the BMW Formula II racing
team from Munich to Sicily. He did a Race Track series of prints in 1972
and the Circuits in 1982. Each of his Circuit prints is done in more than
one version, thus Estoril Five I, with a variety of plates and
colors.
Our print was created in
five steps on handmade paper, from a beech woodblock and four magnesium
plates. The paper was made under Stella’s supervision at the Tyler
Graphics workshop, where each sheet was hand colored with a series of nine
liquid dyes ranging from lime green and pale orange to blue and magenta.
In Step 1, the printing was done with the routed beech woodblock in transparent
yellow to allow the paper color to show through. Step 2: A metal
plate was used to print in red, yellow, yellow-orange, pale orange, spring
green and turquoise blue. Step 3: a second metal plate with light
ocher was pressed over the yellow of step two; Step 4, a thin, line plate was
used to print in purple. Step 5 added dark ocher over the yellow and
light ocher, and a black border.
Sources: The Prints of Frank Stella: Catalogue
Raisonne; curatorial archives;
and research by Anne Mauromatis, education department intern.
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