Legendary American painter and sculptor Frank Stella explained his series of abstract paintings, "Irregular Polygons," emphasizing the flatness in his work and highlighting how the thick bands of color surrounding geometric shapes created illusions of dimensionality in a flat space, in a lecture on Thursday.
Brian Kennedy, former Director of the Hood Museum and curator of the series, led the talk with Stella, a Montgomery Fellow, as images from the series were projected onto a screen behind him. Kennedy asked Stella questions about his early work, including "Black Paintings" and "Aluminum Paintings," series that made Stella a prominent artist in the New York art scene in 1985.
"Shapes mean something special to me," Richard Stamelman, executive director of the Montgomery Endowment, said, quoting Stella. "They're very personal. I love them."
Kennedy also questioned Stella about his dislike for the Italian painter Caravaggio's works, which Stella called "too real." Stella admitted to being a fan of French painter Henri Matisse's work.
Stella discussed his opinion on the current trends in the New York art scene, saying that he has remained active and was one of the first artists to learn of new, promising talent as it arrived in the city, his home base.
Stella also answered questions regarding his reaction to fame. He said that he received less exposure in the 1950s, when he was an active painter, because of a lack of communication technology at the time.
The artist also took questions from the audience about the technicalities of his works, such as the use of shadows and the effect of new technology on the painting process.
"When we grew up, the big issue in painting, on a technical level, was the painting and the drawing," Stella said in an interview with The Dartmouth. "When painting became openly abstract in America in the '40s and '50s, there was a joining of drawing and painting. And in the first paintings I did, really the drive behind the painting was that you'd paint with the brush, and the painting and the drawing would be one, so there was one gesture with the brush."
Stella also answered questions regarding the pleasure of having his work appreciated, saying that he liked appreciating others' works more.
"The event was excellent," Stamelman said. "[Kennedy] asked probing, intelligent questions. [Stella] is a lovely, delightful and modest person I mean, he is basically the most important living American artist. His answers were intelligent, candid and accurate."
Stella has been at the College for the past week, meeting with students in art history and studio art courses. He will also meet with students from more advanced courses in painting and sculpture today to examine samples of their work.
"Irregular Polygons" is currently on display at the Hood Museum of Art for the museum's 25th anniversary.
The series includes 43 canvases based on 11 configurations of shapes in different color combinations, with each format named after a town in New Hampshire. The works were groundbreaking, as they mark the first time an artist intentionally created a series of paintings in irregular, invented shapes, Kennedy said in a previous interview with The Dartmouth.
The Hood's current exhibition is the first time that all the formats have been on display together, according to Stamelman.
Each piece exemplifies the characteristics of the town that it is named after, according to the exhibition guide.
Stella was also a Montgomery Fellow and artist-in-residence at the College from 1963 to 1965.
Staff writer Caitlin Kennedy contributed reporting to this article.
