Frank Stella

Petersburg Press, Inc., New York

Private Collection

Acquired from the above by the present owner

Frank Stella: Polar Co- ordinates for Ronnie Peterson, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, November 18, 1982-January 11, 1983, exhibition of 33 Frank Stella preparatory drawings, trial proofs, working proofs and prints organized by Riva Castleman; 17 similar unique working & trial proof Polar Co-ordinates exhibited. 

Judith Goldman, Frank Stella Fourteen Prints With Drawings, Collages and Working Proofs, The Art Museum at Princeton University, 1984, Frank Stella unique trial and working proof Polar Co-ordinates referenced pages 7-9, 13-19; similar unique Frank Stella trial and working proof Polar Co-ordinates reproduced pages 20-27.

Richard Axsom, The Prints of Frank Stella: A Catalog Raisonne 1967-1982, New York, 1983, Frank Stella unique trial and working proof Polar Co-ordinates referenced pages 23 & 25.

“In the Polar Co-ordinates Stella built the image in stages, relying only loosely on preliminary mixed-media drawings as models. To begin, he drew and painted on initial proofs that bore only the summary outlines of the configuration. He had no foreknowledge of where the print might lead, each proof suggesting the next stage. These working proofs with painted additions were translated into printed trial proofs which were, in turn, painted on for the next step. Developed in this manner, the print was an organic accretion.”

–The Prints of Frank Stella Richard Axsom, 1983, pg. 23

Judith Goldman, revered Whitney Museum Print Curator, wrote of Frank Stella’s Polar Co-ordinates “Though distinctly graphic, they are executed in a painterly manner; colors overlap, textures clash, and they have thick, tactile surfaces that spin with frenzied motion. As graphic art they represent a tour de force of techniques.” [1]

Frank Stella had spent three years creating the Polar Co-ordinate series and the prints were entirely new images, the first for which he conceived specific and extensive studies such as the present lots. During this time he added and deleted screens and changed border colors to simulate the look of pencil in print, combining screenprint and lithography, matte and metallic surfaces, printing as many as fifty three colors, culminating in the final series of 10 prints, the Polar Co-ordinate Set I-VIII, 1980 plus 2 variants.

Goldman further expounds that “The outlines of a quatrefoil, variously dissected and reversed, are the basis of the prints, each creating a different but equally dynamic composition….the prints are bristling with exploding grids and energetic scribbles. Each print is made of multiple layers of screenprinting and lithography, resulting in the rich and organic texture that endows the whirling works. The Polar Co-ordinate Series do not look like any prints we have seen before either by Frank Stella or any other artist” [2]

Each a unique work of art, the present lots represent the artist’s procession towards the final editions of exceptional examples of contemporary printmaking. Frank Stella’s practice of intermingling mediums is at its finest here and the viewer is able to witness the development of compositions that became the noteworthy 1980 series Polar Co-ordinates for Ronnie Peterson.

In 1982 The Museum of Modern Art, New York mounted Polar Co-ordinates for Ronnie Peterson, an exhibition of 33 Frank Stella preparatory drawings, trial proofs, working proofs and prints organized by Riva Castleman, Director of Prints and Illustrated Books. The exhibition presents the evolution of Frank Stella Polar Co-Ordinates I-VIII, 1980, a series of 10 offset lithographs, screenprints and letterpress in colors on Arches Cover paper published by Petersburg Press that took three years to complete and required the assistance of several printers throughout the project. The exhibition included 8 preparatory drawings, 17 unique trial and working proofs as well as Polar Co-ordinates I-VIII (Polar Co-ordinates for Ronnie Peterson), 1980, the set of 8 final prints from the Polar Co-Ordinate series from the regular numbered edition. That such a major museum would devote an exhibition to a single print series signifies the importance of the project.

[1] Judith Goldman, Frank Stella Fourteen Prints With Drawings, Collages, and Working Proofs 1983 The Art Museum, Princeton University Catalogue pp 7-10

[2] Ibid

A certificate of authenticity for this lot from Petersburg Press will be provided upon request.