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"The concentric square format is about as neutral and as simple as you can get. It's just a powerful pictorial image. It's so good that you can use it, abuse it, and even work against it to the point of ignoring it. It has a strength that's almost indestructible."
—Frank StellaOffering dueling matrices of scintillating color on an exceptionally large scale, Frank Stella’s Double Concentric Square is a mesmeric iteration of the artist’s relentless investigation on the power of formalism. Immersing the viewer into pulsating striations radiating with chromatic vibrance, this mature exemplar captures Stella’s continued exploration with the symbol of the square that played a pivotal role in the development of his practice. Here, the artist presents a manifestation of his longstanding interest in the relationship between color, form, and perception, as the saturated bands reverberate with illusionistic depth that belies their austere flatness.
Helen Frankenthaler, Mauve District, 1966. Museum of Modern Art, New York, Image: © The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA / Art Resource, NY, Artwork: © 2021 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New YorkFollowing the success of his early Black Paintings in the late 1950s, in 1962, Stella turned his attention to a subject that would prove to be an essential touchstone for the rest of his career: the square. Despite the form’s seeming directness, Stella found infinite visual possibilities in its prismatic clarity, repeatedly rendering new permutations of concentric squares each unique by their varying colored bands. Despite a hiatus from his Concentric Squares, Stella’s triumphant return to the series in the mid-1970s reflected the square form as the foundation of his ultimate investigations between the two-dimensional picture plane and its three-dimensional support. As William Rubin observed, “The Concentric Squares could be said to have been already used by Stella for over a decade as a kind of standard, or a qualitative ‘scale,’ by which to measure the necessity of using more complicated shapes, configurations, or color arrangements.”i
The arresting simplicity of Stella’s Concentric Squares betrays the artist’s deeply intellectual and systematic approach to their creation. Planning each composition in advance with meticulous detail, Stella would plot the form on graph paper, testing variable color combinations to determine the chromatic scheme. Taking paint directly from the tube, he would then painstakingly transpose the image onto canvas with monastic focus and precision, ensuring the crisp symmetry and linear regularity of the composition as well as the faintly feathered edges between the various layers of the colored bands that altogether suggest the hypnotic optical vibrations exuding from the canvas.
"The Concentric Squares created a pretty high, pretty tough pictorial standard. Their simple, rather humbling effect—almost a numbing power—became a sort of “control” against which my increasing tendency in the seventies to be extravagant could be measured.”
—Frank StellaAs exemplified by the present work, Stella’s Concentric Squares of the 1970s was notably marked by their significantly larger scale, thinner strips of unpainted canvas between the colored bands, and reinvigorated palette of more complex color combinations. In Double Concentric Square, Stella alternates the rich palette between bands of mauve, lilac, plum, and violet, interspersing contrasting primary colors between them as the matrix recedes into the center. The Janus-faced nature of the work juxtaposes the simultaneous formal cohesion and discordant color combinations of the two sides with each other, creating a dynamic tension within the painting that oscillates between the left and right halves, foreground and background, two-and three-dimensions, before the viewer’s eyes.
Josef Albers, Red, Violet around Orange, Pink, 1948. Josef & Anni Albers Foundation, Artwork: © 2021 The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York"Frank Stella is not interested in expression or sensitivity. He is interested in the necessities of painting."
—Carl AndreStella’s engagement with ostensibly straightforward geometries is among the most radical of his peers. Whereas Malevich strove for absolute form by situating shapes in infinite voids, and Albers sought to establish a taxonomy of chromatic harmony, Stella concerns himself only with the fundamentals of painting: color, line, and balance. As the present work powerfully manifests, this enduring exploration and the elemental simplicity of his endeavor have cemented his status as one of the most stalwart and innovative artists of the 20th century. Famously remarking on his work in an interview with Donald Judd and Bruce Glaser, Stella explained in his characteristic laconic wit, “My painting is based on the fact that only what can be seen there is there...All I want anyone to get out of my paintings, and all I ever get out of them, is the fact that you can see the whole idea without any confusion...What you see is what you see.”ii
Cut from the Archives
i William Rubin, Frank Stella, 1970-1987, exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1987, p. 43.
ii Frank Stella, quoted in Bruce Glaser, “Questions to Stella and Judd,” ARTnews, September 1966, online.
Provenance
Private Collection, Tokyo
Sotheby’s, New York, October 31, 1984, lot 63
Camille and Paul Oliver-Hoffmann, Chicago (acquired at the above sale)
Sotheby’s, New York, November 19, 1997, lot 61
Acquired at the above sale by the present ownerExhibited
New York, Yares Art, Larry Poons / Frank Stella: As It Was, As It Is, March 20 – September 10, 2021
Artist Biography
Frank Stella
American • 1936 - N/A
One of the most important living artists, Frank Stella is recognized as the most significant painter that transitioned from Abstract Expressionism to Minimalism. He believes that the painting should be the central object of interest rather than represenative of some subject outside of the work. Stella experimented with relief and created sculptural pieces with prominent properties of collage included. Rejecting the normalities of Minimalism, the artist transformed his style in a way that inspired those who had lost hope for the practice. Stella lives in Malden, Massachusetts and is based in New York and Rock Tavern, New York.
Property of an American Collector
Ο◆31
Double Concentric Square
signed and dated "F. Stella 78" on the overlap
acrylic on canvas
81 x 161 in. (205.7 x 408.9 cm)
Painted in 1978.
Estimate
$1,500,000 - 2,500,000
Sold for $1,845,000
Amanda Lo Iacono
New York Head of Department & Head of Auctions
+1 212 940 1278
aloiacono@phillips.com
20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale
New York Auction 17 November 2021
1
Shara Hughes
Inside Outside
Estimate $250,000 - 350,000
Sold for $1,482,000
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2
Jadé Fadojutimi
My Umbrella Has A Nourishing Disguise
Estimate $150,000 - 200,000
Sold for $877,000
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3
Ewa Juszkiewicz
Girl in Blue
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $730,800
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4
Kwesi Botchway
Green Sofa
Estimate $30,000 - 50,000
Sold for $214,200
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5
Titus Kaphar
Fade With Time
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
Sold for $816,500
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6
David Hammons
Puzzling Times
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $877,000
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7
Raymond Pettibon
No Title (Let him come...)
Estimate $1,500,000 - 2,000,000
Sold for $3,418,000
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8
Joan Mitchell
Untitled
Estimate $4,000,000 - 6,000,000
Sold for $11,870,000
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9
Georgia O'Keeffe
Crab’s Claw Ginger Hawaii
Estimate $4,000,000 - 6,000,000
Sold for $7,748,000
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10
Alexander Calder
White Moon
Estimate $4,000,000 - 6,000,000
Sold for $4,628,000
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11
Cecily Brown
Untitled
Estimate $3,500,000 - 4,500,000
Sold for $6,140,500
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12
Willem de Kooning
Composition
Estimate $800,000 - 1,200,000
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13
Rudolf Stingel
Untitled
Estimate $1,800,000 - 2,500,000
Sold for $2,692,000
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14
This lot is no longer available.
15
Amy Sherald
Welfare Queen
Estimate $1,200,000 - 1,800,000
Sold for $3,902,000
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16
Francis Bacon
'Pope with Owls'
Estimate $35,000,000 - 45,000,000
Sold for $33,000,000
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17
Luc Tuymans
Wallpaper
Estimate $1,500,000 - 2,000,000
Sold for $1,250,000
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18
Pierre Bonnard
Panier de fruit
Estimate $2,000,000 - 3,000,000
Sold for $4,991,000
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19
Honor Titus
Linden Blvd Jazz Radio
Estimate $30,000 - 50,000
Sold for $163,800
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20
Matthew Wong
Time After Time
Estimate $800,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for $1,482,000
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21
Avery Singer
European Ego Ideal
Estimate $1,500,000 - 2,500,000
Sold for $4,023,000
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22
Mark Tansey
Garden
Estimate $700,000 - 1,000,000
Sold for $2,934,000
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23
KAWS
THE WAY HE KNOWS
Estimate $850,000 - 1,000,000
Sold for $1,542,500
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24
Wassily Kandinsky
Fliessend
Estimate $2,000,000 - 3,000,000
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25
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Untitled (from Famous Negro Athlete Series)
Estimate $750,000 - 1,100,000
Sold for $2,450,000
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26
Peter Saul
Ice Box #3
Estimate $350,000 - 450,000
Sold for $441,000
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27
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Untitled (The Door)
Estimate $6,000,000 - 8,000,000
Sold for $8,549,500
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28
Emily Mae Smith
Feast and Famine
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
Sold for $1,361,000
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29
Gerhard Richter
Weiß (White)
Estimate $4,000,000 - 6,000,000
Sold for $5,717,000
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30
Robert Ryman
Series #25 (White)
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $1,421,500
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31
Frank Stella
Double Concentric Square
Estimate $1,500,000 - 2,500,000
Sold for $1,845,000
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32
Carmen Herrera
Amarillo y Negro
Estimate $500,000 - 700,000
Sold for $630,000
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33
Andy Warhol
The Last Supper/Be a Somebody with a Body
Estimate $6,000,000 - 8,000,000
Sold for $6,806,000
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34
Christopher Wool
Blue Fool
Estimate $800,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for $1,179,500
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35
This lot is no longer available.
36
Lynette Yiadom-Boakye
Six PM, Malaga
Estimate $500,000 - 700,000
Sold for $567,000
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37
Mickalene Thomas
Portrait of Qusuquzah #5
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
Sold for $504,000
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38
Mike Kelley
Memory Ware Flat #3
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $1,179,500
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39
George Condo
Collision Course
Estimate $1,800,000 - 2,500,000
Sold for $2,450,000
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40
Bruce Nauman
Untitled (from Fifteen Pairs of Hands)
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $983,000
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41
David Hammons
Untitled
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $3,660,000
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42
Nicolas Party
Houses
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
Sold for $1,724,000
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43
Hurvin Anderson
Country Club—Mixed Doubles
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
Sold for $604,800
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44
Max Ernst
Ohne Titel (les hommes ne le sauront jamais)
Estimate $500,000 - 700,000
Sold for $504,000
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45
Max Ernst
Kachina, le chien de Peggy Guggenheim
Estimate $280,000 - 350,000
Sold for $277,200
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46
Cy Twombly
Untitled
Estimate $600,000 - 800,000
Sold for $786,250
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47
Reggie Burrows Hodges
On the Verge: Green
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $567,000
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48
Max Ernst
Portrait de Ernst Wilhelm Leberecht Tempel
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
Sold for $176,400
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