Page 66 - Studio International - November 1966

Frank Stella showings. Of these, it is not surprising that 30-year-old
Wolfeboro IV 1966 Frank Stella, who has been liberally exposed to the New
Fluorescent alkyd and epoxy
on canvas York public during the past five years, comes out best. In
160+ x 100 x 4 in. spite of Alloway's insistence on the new age which elimi-
Lent by Leo Castelli Gallery, nates 'the lingering notion of History Painting' that
New York, to the Systemic
painting exhibition assumes that invention is the test of the artist, Stella
emerges as both inventive and individualistic. He may be
working systemically, but it doesn't seem to inhibit his
imagination. In fact, despite the new ground rules which
do not permit the individual painting to be judged for
itself, Stella manages to make the best of both worlds—the
systemic and the a-systemic—and emerge with an exuber-
ant, unique image.
His large Wolfeboro is an irregularly-shaped canvas of
basically triangular configurations in which the relations
among the parts are decidedly important. What gives ten-
sion is precisely the truncated perspective of one hybrid
shape (partly triangular, partly rectangular, depending
on how it is read in relation to the whole) as it impinges
on another shape. The thrust of his canvas is vertical, and
everything is calculated to produce a powerful upward
movement. For all the intangible reasons—innate ability,