Fattipuff: A Recent Acquisition by Frank Stella at VFA

My painting is based on the fact that only what can be seen there is there. It really is an object... 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.

– Frank Stella

 

Frank Stella (1936-2024) majored in history at Princeton University. He took some art classes and was introduced to the New York art scene by his professors. 

 

He moved to New York after graduating in 1958, painted his series of Black Paintings when he got there and voila…an art superstar was born and the Minimalist movement began to grow.

 

Stella began to use color, shaped canvas and printmaking. He worked with master printmaker, Kennth Tyler, from 1960 until Tyler’s retirement in 2001.

 

 

Fattipuff, 1996, a recent acquisition at VFA, is an intricate work that  combines screenprint, lithography, etching, aquatint and relief on handmade paper. 

 

About ten years ago, Stella began to use computer images to create large, intricate  star-shaped sculptures at his enormous studio in upstate New York. (Stella means star in Italian). Those sculptures, as well as the paintings and prints that he created, during his more than 60-year career, can be found in major museums around the world.

 

Stella was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 2009 and the Lifetime Achievement Award in Contemporary Sculpture by the International Sculpture Center in 2011.

 

Frank Stella died of lymphoma at his home in the West Village on May 4, 2024, eight days before his 88th birthday. He is survived by his wife, Dr. Harriet E. McGurk, five children and five grandchildren.

 

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 This has been an exciting time at Vertu Fine Art. We’ve settled in to our new location at  922 Clint Moore Road in Boca Raton and we’re getting ready for the Hamptons Fine Art Fair from July 10 to 13 at the Southampton Fairgrounds. Hope to see you at both locations.

 

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May 29, 2025