Frank Stella - Editions & Works on Paper New York Tuesday, April 16, 2024 | Phillips

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  • Frank Stella expertly employs his “mitered maze” design in this lithograph, Hyena Stomp from the Jasper’s Dilemma series. The series was based on his Concentric Squares and Mitered Mazes paintings of 1962-63 in which concentric bands of alternating colors are interrupted by diagonal lines that almost meet in a spiraling center at the middle point of the composition. In the paintings and subsequent prints, Stella’s use of bright and seemingly few colors initially appears uncomplicated, yet the longer one looks the more complex they become. Though the painting Hyena Stomp is in shades of red, blue and green, allowing for a spiraling of rainbow hues, Stella’s choice to render the print in shades of grey emphasizes its optical qualities. The lines inspire the illusion of depth and movement, simultaneously moving backward and forward in space. 

     

    The term “mitered” refers to a technique used in quilting to create flat and neat corners, creating a clean, diagonal line down the seam. The art of quilting was mastered by the enslaved women of Gee’s Bend in the 19th century, who were initially spurred by a practical need to stay warm during harsh Alabama winters. Ahead of their time, they developed countless abstract designs, passed down through generations to today. Malissia Pettway’s Housetop, constructed in the same decade as Stella’s Concentric Squares and Mitered Mazes, utilizes the same concentric square pattern as Hyena Stomp. In Gee’s Bend, the term “housetop” refers to any quilt composed of concentric circles. In their construction, the maker begins with a central square medallion and sews additional rectangular pieces along each side in echo of the quilt’s borders, coiling around and around. The ritual-like nature of this repetition is evocative of the traditional African American "call and response" music and religious worship and reflects its push and pull. Stella’s Hyena Stomp retains this physical sense of movement through the picture plane yet is disrupted slightly as each end meets at its mitered corner, preventing the viewer from succumbing to a hypnotic trance. 

     

    Malissia Pettway, Housetop, 1960s, The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. Artwork: © Estate of Malissa Pettway 

    Hyena Stomp takes its name from African American jazz musician Jelly Roll Morton’s 1927 song. Stella greatly enjoyed listening to jazz and collected early American jazz records. The diagonal lines, unable to meet at the center, mirror the syncopation of jazz and its offbeat melodies that seamlessly fit together like jigsaw puzzle pieces.  

     

    Jelly Roll Morton and the Red Hot Peppers playing “Hyena Stomp,” 1927

     

    • Literature

      Richard Axsom 83

    • 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.

      View More Works

Property from a Contemporary Family Collection

256

Hyena Stomp, from Jasper's Dilemma (A. 83)

1973
Lithograph in colors, on J. Green mould-made paper, with full margins.
I. 8 5/8 x 8 5/8 in. (21.9 x 21.9 cm)
S. 16 x 22 in. (40.6 x 55.9 cm)

Signed, dated and numbered 'AP 10/20' in pencil (an artist's proof, the edition was 100), published by Petersburg Press Ltd., London, framed.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
$1,000 - 2,000 

Sold for $1,905

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Editions & Works on Paper

New York Auction 16 - 17 April