Frank Stella

While we were in Ohio, KVC and I made a stop at the Wexner Center for the Arts. It seems to be a part of the process for trips to Ohio. The center should get more credit than it does, but it's in Ohio...

Anyway, there was a cramped exhibit of some Frank Stella work. It was work from the period in the fifties when old Frank was just starting to play with those big black canvas squares, with lines on 'em.


I have seen a bunch of work by Mr. Stella, but these are always the ones I think about. There seems to be some solution in these.
I am still trying to pin down what it is. The balance of precision and imperfection, I'm thinking. There are clearly very deliberate decisions being made, in regards to scale, and palette and line - but there is still the sense of variables of human hand involved. I'm thinking that is what gets me, holds my attention.

I have been thinking about these paintings in relation to my little car project. That may seem like a stretch, car guys usually don't list modernist painters as major influences in their building process. Think about it, though. I still am.