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Frank Stella
Pergusa Three, TP 11, from Circuits, 1983
Relief and woodcut
The Art: What’s Going on Here?
Swirling, looping ribbons of color bisected and overlaid with straight
lines dominate the center of Frank Stella’s Pergusa Three, a print from
his Circuits print series of 1983. The title refers to the Autodromo di
Pergusa, a three-mile racetrack around Pergusa Lake near the city of
Enna in Sicily. The Three in the title indicates that the print is a scaled
version of a corresponding Stella painting on metal from 1981, also
called Pergusa.The print is not a reproduction of the painting, but rather
employs similar colors and shapes.
The style of Pergusa Three is abstract, in that it does not depict a
recognizable object or scene, but its lines, colors, shapes, and textures
have an external referent in the movement, speed, and asphalt of
auto racing cars and tracks. Frank Stella’s approach to abstraction
evolved from his minimalist geometric works in the early 1960s to
gestural “narrative abstraction,” of which this print is an example, with
illusionistic references to forms and shapes of the world. The image is
dominated by its central web of red curves and jutting white wing-like
shapes, with pops of green and yellow that seem to zoom around the
space. A colorful lace pattern embedded in the curves suggests tire
treads and skid marks. In contrast with the curves, sharp edges and
bisecting straight lines suggest the precise designs of Formula One cars,
which have high rectangular spoilers and are built low to the ground
with huge, wide tires. By alternating the straight and curving lines Stella
creates tension that adds to the sense of speed and energy suggested
by the image’s reference to a racing track. Red is a fitting dominant
color, as “racing red,” or rosso corsa (ross-soh core-sah) is the color
historically applied to cars racing for Italy in international races (much
like “racing green” was used for British cars). Red is also associated with
the famous Italian automaker Ferrari.
The Circuits prints are examples of seriality or serial art, which
became prevalent in American art during the twentieth-century and
was practiced particularly by Minimalist artists during the 1960s and
70s. During this period, Frank Stella was associated with Minimalism,
a style that employed geometric shapes and surfaces to call attention
to the materials in the works rather than to emotional expression or
overt symbolism. Frank Stella continued to experiment and innovate
throughout his career, and Pergusa Three reflects his evolution from his
early precise geometry to lively gesture, from his early stark blacks and
grays to luminous color, and from titles that referred simply to the object
itself to titles that suggest abstract “narratives” of the surrounding world.
Pergusa Three was printed on hand-made paper saturated with splotches
of watercolor paint. It combines inlaid metal etching, intaglio and
woodblock printing with two separate woodblocks made of beech
Key Ideas
• Abstract “narration” which alludes to
forms and shapes in the real world
• Seriality as a means to explore an
idea or theme using repetitions and
variations
• Continual experimentation leading to
new creative directions over the course
of an artist’s career
Discussion Questions
1. Stella has said, “I like real art. It’s
difficult to define REAL but it is the
best word for describing what I like to
get out of art and what the best art
has. It has the ability to convince you
that it’s present—that it’s there. You
could say it’s authentic... but real is
actually a better word, broad as it may
be.” How does Pergusa Three convince
you that it is real, that it is THERE?
2.Sustained looking at Pergusa Three may
create the sense that the shapes begin
to move. What is your experience of
movement or of pushing into space as
you look at the image?
3.Some viewers think that Stella’s
prints exude a mood of optimism and
confidence. What do you notice that
might imply or stimulate this feeling?
4.How is your understanding of this
image influenced by knowing that
the title, Pergusa Three, refers to a
racetrack? Does the title help you
affect your responses to it? How?
wood. The woodblocks included magnesium inserts to create areas
of different texture—specifically a tablecloth pattern etched onto the
magnesium inserts. By combining all of these different approaches Frank
Stella created an image with depth and the appearance of multiple layers.
The result is an abstract image that vibrates with energy like the energy
of auto racing.
The Artist: Biographical Notes
Frank Stella was born in 1936 in Massachusetts. He attended Princeton
University and majored in history. His visits to New York City in the
1950s exposed him to the works of abstract expressionist painters
like Jackson Pollock, and later, to the flag and target paintings of Jasper
Johns which influenced his choice to move to New York and begin his
career in art. In the 1950s and 1960s Stella’s interest in the idea of art
as an object rather than as a symbolic representation was reflected in
his series of Black Paintings, which were rectangular canvases painted
in black stripes with thin lines of unpainted canvas, and his Irregular
Polygon series, which was painted on irregularly shaped canvases. Over
his long career he continually experimented with printmaking, opening
up traditional print media to new possibilities.
Resources
On the Artist
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Stella
http://whitney.org/Exhibitions/FrankStella
http://www.theartstory.org/artist-stella-frank.
htm
http://www.moma.org/collection/artists/5640
Art Methods
On minimalism and seriality: https://www.
moma.org/learn/moma_learning/themes/
minimalism/serial-forms-and-repetition
An introduction to printmaking (video):
http://www.moma.org/explore/multimedia/
videos/151/907
http://www.nytimes.com/1983/01/14/arts/
art-frank-stella-s-prints-at-the-whitney.
html?pagewanted=all
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Frank Stella, Pergusa Three, TP II, from Circuits, 1983. Relief and woodcut on white TLG, handmade, hand-colored paper, 66 x 52 inches.
Collection of Jordan D. Schnitzer. © 2016 Frank Stella / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Frank Stella, Pergusa Three, TP II, from Circuits, 1983. Relief and woodcut on white TLG, handmade, hand-colored paper, 66 x 52 inches.
__Collection of Jordan D. Schnitzer. © 2016 Frank Stella / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.