Frank Stella (b. 1936)

6. Scramble: Ascending Yellow Values/Descending Spectrum

Details

Frank Stella (b. 1936)
6. Scramble: Ascending Yellow Values/Descending Spectrum
signed and dated 'F. Stella '77' (on the overlap); signed, titled and dated '6. SCRAMBLE: ASCENDING YELLOW VALUES/DESCENDING SPECTRUM F. Stella:77' (on the stretcher)
acrylic on canvas
69 x 69in. (175.2 x 175.2cm.)
Painted in 1977

Provenance

M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., New York.
Andre Emmerich, New York.
Anon. sale, Christie's New York, 22 February 1995, lot. 55.
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner.

Exhibited

Klosterneuburg, Sammlung Essl - Kunst der Gegenwart, The Essl Collection - the first view, 1999-2000, p. 394 (illustrated in colour, p. 242).
Klosterneuburg, Sammlung Essl - Kunst der Gegenwart, Permanent 01, 2000-2002.
Klosterneuburg, Essl Museum - Kunst der Gegenwart, [un]gemalt, 2002-2003 (illustrated, p. 165). This exhibition later travelled to Ljubljana, Moderna Galerija Ljubljana.
Klosterneuburg, Sammlung Essl - Kunst der Gegenwart, Visions of America, 2004-2005, p. 302 (illustrated in colour, pp. 33, 40 and 159).
Klosterneuburg, Schömer-Haus, Esslsbrücke (Graphische) - FotografInnen im Dialog mit Werken der Sammlung Essl, 2005.
Klosterneuburg, Essl Museum - Kunst der Gegenwart, Passion for Art: 35th Anniversary of the Essl Collection, vol. II, 2007, pp. 262 and 555 (illustrated in colour, p. 263).
Klosterneuburg, Essl Museum - Kunst der Gegenwart, Die Sammlung, 2008-2009.

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Lot Essay

‘Representing Stella’s second important work phase after the “black paintings” of the 1960s, these paintings [D.Scramble: Ascending Green Values/Ascending Spectrum and 6.Scramble: Ascending Yellow Values/Descending Spectrum] demonstrate his exploration of optical illusion. The precisely calibrated colour squares produce a three-dimensional visual impact that contains a reference Josef Albers’ “Homage to the Square” series… Stella’s work represented a painter’s attack on the introspective motifs of Abstract Expressionism and the resultant transcendence. To him, a thing can only exist if the eye can see it’ (B. Steffen, ‘Visions of America’ in Visions of America, exh. cat., Essl Museum, Klosterneuburg, 2004, pp. 40-41).

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