‘What You See Is What You See’ @ Shapero Modern
American artist Frank Stella has become internationally renowned for his innovation in abstraction in a variety of media. He has made groundbreaking achievements in the print medium by combining printmaking processes. Under the technical guidance of Kenneth Tyler, Stella expanded the technical capacity of the press. For over three decades, the pair worked together evolving Stella’s work in print to convey the complexity of his imagery.
After being prompted by Tyler in the 1960s to explore printmaking, Stella would develop a profound understanding of the relationship between painting and printmaking. He explored and expanded upon the formal concerns of his early painting in the initial series of lithographs he published with Tyler. Fortin de Las Flores, one of Stella’s earliest prints, addresses the topics of color and illusionary depth that the artist also explored in his Concentric Square paintings. The screen print is based on a 1961 painting from the Benjamin Moore Series titled New Madrid. It features two multi-colored mazes with different color tonalities paired so that two points of focus compete for the viewer’s attention.
Frank Stella, Fortin de las Flores (First Version), 1967, screenprint with hand-pencil on English Vellum Graph paper, signed, dated and numbered from the edition of 200, printed by Fine Creations, Inc, New York, published by Tanglewood Press, New York, 46 x 58.4 cm.
By the 1970’s the revival of printmaking in the United States was well underway. Influential artists of the new generation such as Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, alongside Frank Stella were collaborating with Kenneth Tyler to test the limits of modern printmaking techniques. Tyler was a problem solver, if an artist required an unusual technique he would invent a press or process to meet their needs. If an artist wanted to create an image larger than the standard format he would find new sources for paper. It was at this time that Stella, enabled by Tyler, began to introduce more complex layering and materials into his printmaking practice. Rakow, an acrylic, fabric and felt collage of 1972 is an example of the artist’s use of collage to bring together disparate materials to create a new composition. He worked with Tyler to incorporate collage into his prints.
Rakow, 1972, acrylic, fabric, and felt collage, paperboard laid down on appeal, signed, titled, and dated. 70.5 x 75.5 cm.
It was around this time that the artist was starting to transition from his early minimalist approach—testing the limits of form, line, scale, and color— to produce artwork that communicated the complexities of contemporary life and his own image making. His Race Track Series was comprised of large scale extended horizontal screen prints. The scale that Stella requested challenged both Tyler and contemporary print making practices. Los Alamitos, a screen print named for the Los Alamitos Race Track represents the next step that the pair took in their collaboration to advance Stella’s artistic vision in print. The symmetric work contemplates themes of infinity and balance while incorporating personal references. Stella kept and raced horses, as well as being a Formula 1 enthusiast.
Los Alamitos, 1972, screenprint on Gemini rag board, signed, dated, and numbered from the edition of 75, published by Gemini G.E.L., Los Angeles. 51.3 x 203.5 cm.
Stella also explored the relationship between sculpture and printmaking. During the next phase of his prolific career, the artist would continue his pursuit of a more baroque modern style. His achievements thus far prompted him to look back to the Abstract Expressionists as portrayers of nature through brushwork. He began to redefine this practice in three dimensions, undertaking more sculptural work. He would sculpt using more painterly methods, for example, pouring aluminum into sand. He would translate the frozen gestures that resulted from this technique into his printmaking. In their Paper Relief Project of 1974, Ken Tyler had developed a high relief paper making mold that would have a profound impact on the pair’s later collaborations. Using this mold, Tyler was able to accommodate Stella’s expanding practice by creating multi-dimensional forms. Olyka III, a Paper Relief dated to 1975, displays raised geometric forms— a hallmark of a series where the artist’s practices of painting, sculpture, and printmaking converged.
Olyka III, 1975, cotton-pulp relief collage, hand colored with dyes and dry pigments on white HMP handmade paper, signed and dated in pencil, published by Tyler Graphics Ltd., Bedford Village, NY. 63 x 53.5 x 3 cm.
Frank Stella’s practice is characterized by his serial examination of his subjects. His tendency to work in series influenced Pop Artist Andy Warhol who would begin to organize his body of work in a similar fashion. His series explore the same subject through order and variation. Translating his subjects between different mediums—from painting to print— inherently changed them. In Polar Coordinates for Ronnie Peterson, Stella re-visits the motifs from preparatory drawings for his Flin Flon and Saskatoon paintings. The resulting configurations from 1980 are loose, the artist worked over edge of the plates. He combined techniques— lithography and screen printing—with metallics and glitter. Plates for Polar Coordinates for Ronnie Peterson were later cut up by the artist and used for another series of the early eighties. The grid system in the backdrop of Shards I and Shards III [on display in Frank Stella: What You See Is What You See] was developed using the plates. The Shards series also incorporated varied elements of Stella’s Circuit series of prints.
Polar Co-ordinates for Ronnie Peterson, 1980, complete set of eight lithographs, screenprints, with letterpress on 230 gram arches cover paper, each signed, dated, and numbered from the edition of 100, published by Petersburg Press, New York. 97.8 x 96.3 cm.
The Swan Engravings were Stella’s next step in his progression towards one of his most widely explored subjects in his printmaking practice, Herman Melville’s novel Moby Dick. The engravings were composed from shards of plates that the Swan Engraving Company had used to print lace patterns on plastic tablecloths. By this time, Tyler and Stella were creating prints that told compelling stories using abstraction, painterly and sculptural techniques, collage, and movement. The first prints that Stella based on literature were a series called The Waves, completed in the late 80s. They were each named after thirteen chapter headings from the book.
The Waves: Squid, 1989, silkscreen, lithograph, linoleum block with hand-coloring, marbling, and collage on T.H. Saunders and Somerset paper, signed, dated, and numbered from the edition of 60, published by Waddington Graphics, London. 190 x 139 cm.
The Waves: Squid is based on Melville’s chapter where the crew of the Pequot mistakes a giant squid for a great white whale. In the print Stella uses watercolor marbling, collage, mixes silkscreen and lithograph techniques, and linoleum block printing with hand-coloring. The popular American novel isn’t the only literary reference that Stella incorporated into the series; the structures transposed into these compositions were discovered by the artist when he encountered Daniel Sheets Dye’s A Grammar of Chinese Lattice. In The Waves: The Great Hidelburg Tun, Stella’s collage and marbling swirl around another of Dye’s lattices, symbolizing the diety of heaven. In The Waves: Quarter Deck Stella’s adds another layer incorporating a popular commodity, black plastic diffraction glasses, into his collage.
The Waves: Quarter Deck, 1989. Silkscreen, lithograph, linoleum block with hand coloring, marbling and collage on T.H. Saunders and Somerset paper, signed, dated and numbered from the edition of 60, published by Waddington Graphics, London. 190.5 x 141.5 cm.
Overall, the show at Shapero Modern, Frank Stella: What You See Is What You Get provides a comprehensive view of the evolution of Stella’s printmaking practices. The selection reflects his creative output from some of his earliest prints and culminates with examples of The Waves and the Imaginary Places series. The exhibition brings attention to and critically examines the relationship between Stella and Tyler, making it visually apparent to visitors of the show how the two men inspired one another to reimagine the artistic possibilities of printmaking.