New Haven Register (Sunday) (New Haven, CT)
A star attraction indoors and out
Painting has been part of Frank Stella’s DNA since a young age.
While growing up, he’d paint alongside his mother, whose work is displayed at libraries and museums near the Massachusetts town where Stella was raised.
His father worked his way through college as a house painter so Stella did a lot of sanding, varnishing and painting with him.
“I was used to being around paint — both in the commercial and art-based way,” he said.
He excelled in art while a student at Phillips Academy Andover, where classes emphasized both art history and studio time to create art.
“The paint is free at elite schools,” Stella recalled with a chuckle. “I kind of abused the privilege and they got on my case.”
Stella, 84, went on to become a leading abstract artist specializing in painting, sculpture, printmaking and public art. His work can be found at the Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum and Washington’s National Gallery of Art.
Theaters, hospitals, museums and other institutions around the United States and elsewhere display Stella’s large sculptures.
The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield will host a solo outdoor and indoor exhibition of his work, “Frank Stella’s Stars, a Survey,” through May 9. The show highlights Stella’s work with star figures, a form he’s often explored during a career of more than six decades. His artwork can be seen in the galleries, outdoor sculpture garden, courtyard and front lawn.
Amy Smith-Stewart, Aldrich senior curator, said displaying Stella’s work outside serves “as a beacon for what we do inside the museum and extends the visitor experience by encouraging the public to enjoy contemporary art under the open sky.”
Smith-Stewart called Stella “one of the most important living artists working today” and “a prolific innovator.”
“His omnivorous appetite for experimentation has influenced so many generations of artists,” she said, pointing out at age 23 his Black Paintings at MoMA “ushered in the beginnings of minimalism” and in the 1980s he was one of the first artists to use computer technology to make sculptures.
Stella’s work has been included in 15 group exhibits at the Aldrich, but this is his
first solo show there. It includes paintings, sculptures, wall reliefs and painted objects of varying sizes.
“Stars are complicated but interesting shapes,” Stella said. “They become even more interesting when exploring their relationship with other things.”