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FRANK STELLA
(“Frank Stella:
Paintings, Leo Castelli Gallery 4 East 77th Street, New York NY NY
April 28 – May 19 [1962] Opening All Day”). 1962. Lithograph on die-cut paper
printed in metallic ink (copper) on both sides. 17 ¾ x 17 ¾”.
Conceived by the
artist, this shaped exhibition poster commemorates Stella’s seminal, second
one-person show at Leo Castelli Gallery. A condensation of Stella’s first two
shows is presently re-gathered at L & M Arts, New York, the importance of
which is described by Roberta Smith: “These works (from 1960 and 1962)
represent the cornerstone of Mr. Stella’s reputation, the Stella whose
historical importance, as with Picasso’s Cubist paintings, is most widely, if
somewhat predictably, accepted…They hark back to a time when flatness was
abstract painting’s primary goal, and the physical facts of the medium were
starting to be endlessly parsed—beginning with shaped canvases—in a process
that continues today. No artist’s work embodied these pursuits as rigorously as
Mr. Stella’s; in the paintings at L & M, he laid down the tracks that others
followed” (Roberta Smith, The New York
Times, April 26, 2012). This elaborately conceived announcement published
by Leo Castelli is shaped and inked in the manner of the artist’s canvases, and
at this point, is arguably more difficult to come by than one of the artist’s
notoriously rare Aluminum or Copper paintings. Very rare. In mint condition
with no visible time staining. Take note of the back story: the unfolding,
typographic lay-out on the verso of the 1962 announcement echoes Stella’s
typographic, shape-shifting rhetoric operative in the paintings: when folded,
the announcement forms the shape of an “L” (when opened, it otherwise forms the
shape of a “T” or a crucifix). This linguistic transition—and ability to
shapeshift--mirrors the transmogrification of Stella’s series of Aluminum and
Copper paintings included in the 1962 show itself, many of which are shaped
like alphabetic letters or as here, a cross. In other words, the concept / form
/ design of this early, Castelli-published offering functions just as the
system of objects that it announces. If
not the holy grail, certainly the “cornerstone” foundation of both Stella’s
work and early commitment to print.
© Todd Alden 2012 Enquire
© Todd Alden 2012 Enquire