Study for Albany Mall [panel 1] 1968

Here’s a vibrant study on paper by Frank Stella that looks like it might have been made with gouache or maybe acrylic. I’m really taken by the semi-circular forms in a range of hues—pinks, greens, blues, and browns—that playfully intersect, making me think about architecture, movement, and how shapes interact. I can imagine Stella, in his studio, maybe shuffling these forms around, seeing how they nestle together, trying to make it work. The paint has a certain flatness to it, which pushes the focus onto the relationships between the different colors and forms, but it is not exactly flat. It is worked, and I like the earthiness of the overall tone. It brings to mind other pattern-based paintings, and reminds me of the work of another great painter, Elizabeth Murray. Artists are always in dialogue, you know, riffing off each other, borrowing and improvising. Ultimately, this work, like all paintings, is an experiment. There are so many ways to see and respond to it, and that openness is really where its beauty lies, right?