Skip to main content

Frank Stella Purple

Recent Sales

Purple Series
By Frank Stella
Located in Toronto, Ontario
early champion and friend of the artist. (Today the Met holds over 90 examples of Frank Stella's work
Category

Late 20th Century Abstract Prints and Multiples

Materials

Lithograph

Purple Hollis
By Frank Stella
Located in Toronto, Ontario
In 1970 the Museum of Modern Art, New York presented a retrospective of Frank Stella's work, making
Category

Late 20th Century Abstract Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Frank Stella "Purple Sidney" Lithograph, 1972
By Frank Stella
Located in Toronto, Ontario
Frank Stella's work references many of the key developments or movements in post-war American
Category

1970s Abstract Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Purple Series
By Frank Stella
Located in New York, NY
Printer: Ron Adams; Publisher Gemini G.E.L. Catalogue Raisonne: 64-72 Edition size: 100 Signed, dated, and numbered, lower margin, each
Category

1970s Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Get Updated with New Arrivals
Save "Frank Stella Purple", and we’ll notify you when there are new listings in this category.

Frank Stella Purple For Sale on 1stDibs

You are likely to find exactly the frank stella purple you’re looking for on 1stDibs, as there is a broad range for sale. Find contemporary versions now, or shop for contemporary creations for a more modern example of these cherished works. You’re likely to find the perfect frank stella purple among the distinctive items we have available, which includes versions made as long ago as the 19th Century as well as those made as recently as the 21st Century. When looking for the right frank stella purple for your space, you can search on 1stDibs by color — popular works were created in bold and neutral palettes with elements of purple, gray, brown and beige. There have been many interesting frank stella purple examples over the years, but those made by Milly Ristvedt, Frank Stella, Melisa Taylor Metzger, Sungyong Hong and Sherron Francis are often thought to be among the most thought-provoking. Artworks like these — often created in paint, acrylic paint and synthetic resin paint — can elevate any room of your home. A large frank stella purple can be an attractive addition to some spaces, while smaller examples are available — approximately spanning 1 high and 11 wide — and may be better suited to a more modest living area.

How Much is a Frank Stella Purple?

A frank stella purple can differ in price owing to various characteristics — the average selling price for items in our inventory is $6,500, while the lowest priced sells for $150 and the highest can go for as much as $52,000.

Frank Stella for sale on 1stDibs

Frank Stella was one of the central figures in postwar American art. A proponent of minimalism and non-representational abstraction, Stella was a painter, printmaker and sculptor.

A native of Massachusetts, Stella attended Phillips Academy in Andover and earned a BA from Princeton, where he studied art and color theory with Josef Albers and Hans Hofmann. Stella frequented New York galleries as a student and was intrigued by the work of Jackson Pollock and Franz Kline, both of whom were at the height of their creative powers in the late 1950s.

After moving to New York in 1958, Stella gravitated toward the geometric abstraction and restrained painting style of Barnett Newman and Jasper Johns.

Johns’s flat, graphic images of common objects such as targets and flags prompt viewers to question the essential nature of representation and whether these pictures are really paintings or simply new iterations of the items themselves. Stella pushed Johns’s reasoning further, considering paintings on canvas as objects in their own right, like sculptures, rather than representations. This led him to reject certain formal conventions, eschewing sketches and often using nontraditional materials, like house paint.

In 1959, Stella created his “Black Paintings,” series, in which bands of black paint are separated by thin, precise stripes of bare canvas. At a time when contemporary painting was all about wild gestures, thick paint and formal abandon, these pieces created a sensation. That same year, Stella's work was included in the exhibition "Sixteen Americans" at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and he joined the roster of artists represented by Leo Castelli Gallery. In 1960, he began introducing color into his work and using unconventionally shaped canvases to complement his compositions.

In his “Eccentric Polygon” series, from 1965 and ‘66, Stella embraces asymmetry and bold color, creating forms delineated by painted fields and by the edges of the canvas. This series was followed by the 1967–70 “Protractor” series, characterized by colorful circles and arcs. Named after the ancient cities whose circular plans Stella had noticed while traveling in the Middle East during the 1960s, these works usually comprised several canvases set flush against one another so that the geometric figures in each section came together in a larger, more complex whole.

Also in the mid-1960s, Stella started exploring printmaking, initially working with Kenneth Tyler, of Gemini G.E.L., and later installing printing equipment in his own studio. In 1968, he created the “V” series of lithographs, which included the print Quathlamba I. Following a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in 1970, Stella began working in three dimensions, adding relief elements to paintings, which could almost be considered wall-mounted sculptures.

Stella’s 1970–73 “Polish Village” series was inspired by documentary photos and architectural drawings of Polish synagogues that had been destroyed by Nazis during World War II. The resulting works — composed primarily of paint and cloth on plywood — are more rugged and less polished than his previous series.

Herman Melville's Moby Dick was Stella's muse for a series of three- dimensional works he created in the 1980s in which waveforms, architectural elements and Platonic solids play a prominent role. During this period, Stella embraced a new, exuberant style that is exemplified in "La Scienza della Fiacca."

In 1997, the artist oversaw the creation of the Stella Project, a 5,000-square-foot work inside the Moores Opera House at the University of Houston. A large free-standing sculpture by Stella stands outside the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

Stella’s work is in the collections of numerous important museums around the world, including New York’s Museum of Modern Art and Metropolitan Museum of Art; the Menil Collection, in Houston; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, in Washington, D.C.; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. He was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Obama in 2009, and was given the Lifetime Achievement Award in Contemporary Sculpture by the International Sculpture Center in 2011.

Find original Frank Stella art for sale on 1stDibs.

Finding the Right Prints-works-on-paper for You

Decorating with fine art prints — whether they’re figurative prints, abstract prints or another variety — has always been a practical way of bringing a space to life as well as bringing works by an artist you love into your home.

Pursued in the 1960s and ’70s, largely by Pop artists drawn to its associations with mass production, advertising, packaging and seriality, as well as those challenging the primacy of the Abstract Expressionist brushstroke, printmaking was embraced in the 1980s by painters and conceptual artists ranging from David Salle and Elizabeth Murray to Adrian Piper and Sherrie Levine.

Printmaking is the transfer of an image from one surface to another. An artist takes a material like stone, metal, wood or wax, carves, incises, draws or otherwise marks it with an image, inks or paints it and then transfers the image to a piece of paper or other material.

Fine art prints are frequently confused with their more commercial counterparts. After all, our closest connection to the printed image is through mass-produced newspapers, magazines and books, and many people don’t realize that even though prints are editions, they start with an original image created by an artist with the intent of reproducing it in a small batch. Fine art prints are created in strictly limited editions — 20 or 30 or maybe 50 — and are always based on an image created specifically to be made into an edition.

Many people think of revered Dutch artist Rembrandt as a painter but may not know that he was a printmaker as well. His prints have been preserved in time along with the work of other celebrated printmakers such as Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí and Andy Warhol. These fine art prints are still highly sought after by collectors.

“It’s another tool in the artist’s toolbox, just like painting or sculpture or anything else that an artist uses in the service of mark making or expressing him- or herself,” says International Fine Print Dealers Association (IFPDA) vice president Betsy Senior, of New York’s Betsy Senior Fine Art, Inc.

Because artist’s editions tend to be more affordable and available than his or her unique works, they’re more accessible and can be a great opportunity to bring a variety of colors, textures and shapes into a space.

For tight corners, select small fine art prints as opposed to the oversized bold piece you’ll hang as a focal point in the dining area. But be careful not to choose something that is too big for your space. And feel free to lean into it if need be — not every work needs picture-hanging hooks. Leaning a larger fine art print against the wall behind a bookcase can add a stylish installation-type dynamic to your living room. (Read more about how to arrange wall art here.)

Find fine art prints for sale on 1stDibs today.

Questions About Frank Stella
  • 1stDibs ExpertNovember 20, 2024
    Frank Stella is important because he was one of the central figures in postwar American art and influenced later artists as a proponent of minimalism and non-representational abstraction. Stella felt that paintings on canvas were objects in their own right, like sculptures. This led him to reject certain formal conventions, eschewing sketches and often using nontraditional materials, like house paint. His approach to art impacted the work of Clement Greenberg, Carl Andre, Kenneth Noland and many others. Find a collection of Frank Stella art on 1stDibs.