Stella’s <em>Irregular Polygons </em>for the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College. While fulfilling his final obligations as director of the Hood Museum last fall, Kennedy was encouraged by Stella to bring these important works to Toledo as well.<br><br>
With the cooperation of the Hood Museum of Art and lenders to the exhibition, the Toledo Museum of Art will present <em>Frank Stella:</em> <em>Irregular Polygons</em> from April 8–July 24 in its Canaday Gallery. Admission to the exhibition is free.<br>
A consistent innovator at the forefront of abstract art, Stella produces his works in series, immersing himself in visual thinking and creating according to the principle of, in his words, “line, plane, volume, and point, within space.”<br><br>
This exhibition presents one of each of the artist’s 11 monumental compositions for the <em>Irregular Polygons</em> series (1965–66), along with preparatory drawings and the 1974 print series <em>Eccentric Polygons</em> based on the <em>Irregular Polygons. </em>Stella uses the same shapes but varies colors in the lithograph series.<br><br>
“Together the objects provide visitors a chance to engage with the ‘complex simplicity’ that is the paradox of <a target="_blank" href=https://www.mutualart.com/Exhibition/Frank-Stella--Irregular-Polygons/"/Artist/Frank-Stella/882E29592C365533">Stella’s work</a>,” says Kennedy. “It’s the first time all of these monumental works will have been displayed in one room. In fact, until this exhibition was organized, all of them had never had been shown together,” he notes.<br><br>
Perhaps even more startling is that Frank Stella is the first artist in history to create a deliberate set of paintings shaped as irregular polygons. Previously, painting were most often rectangular or more rarely, oval, circular or square, as Kennedy points out in the 134-page scholarly catalog he wrote to accompany the exhibition.<br><br>
Although based on simple geometries, the <em>Irregular Polygons</em> comprise one of the most complex artistic statements of the artist’s career.<br><br>
Each of the 11 compositions combines varying numbers of shapes to create daringly irregular outlines. Stella made four versions of each composition, changing the color combinations. Created in 1965–66, they mark a radical shift from his earlier striped paintings in their use of large fields of color. The asymmetric canvases play with illusion, confronting the artist’s previous emphasis on flatness while continuing his career-long exploration of space and volume in both painting and sculpture.<br><br>
Stella first burst on the New York art scene in 1958 when some of his “black paintings” were shown in the exhibition <em>Sixteen Americans </em>at the Museum of Modern Art. Born in 1936, he attended Phillips Academy, Andover, and Princeton University, from which he graduated in 1958. He has lived in New York ever since.<br><br>
Consistently inventive, Stella, now 74, is perhaps the most significant artist to work in the abstract tradition of painting, sculpture and print making over the past 50 years. President Barack Obama described him as “obviously a legend for his accomplishments as one of the world’s most innovative painters and sculptors” when presenting him the National Medal of Arts, the nation’s highest honor for artistic excellence, in 2010.<br><br>
The Toledo exhibition of his <em>Irregular Polygons</em>, organized and originally shown at the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College on Oct. 9, 2010–March 13, 2011, is made possible by members of the Toledo Museum of Art. The exhibition also is supported in part through the sustainable grant program of the Ohio Arts Council.<br><br>
The exhibition catalog, published by the Hood Museum is available for purchase in the TMA Museum Store and online. A free mini-guide to the exhibition is available for visitors.<br>" />
Frank Stella: Irregular Polygons
Apr 08, 2011 - Jul 24, 2011
When Brian P. Kennedy was named the ninth director of the Toledo Museum of Art, he was working on an exhibition devoted to Frank Stella’s Irregular Polygons for the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College. While fulfilling his final obligations as director of the Hood Museum last fall, Kennedy was encouraged by Stella to bring these important works to Toledo as well.
With the cooperation of the Hood Museum of Art and lenders to the exhibition, the Toledo Museum of Art will present Frank Stella: Irregular Polygons from April 8–July 24 in its Canaday Gallery. Admission to the exhibition is free.
A consistent innovator at the forefront of abstract art, Stella produces his works in series, immersing himself in visual thinking and creating according to the principle of, in his words, “line, plane, volume, and point, within space.”
This exhibition presents one of each of the artist’s 11 monumental compositions for the Irregular Polygons series (1965–66), along with preparatory drawings and the 1974 print series Eccentric Polygons based on the Irregular Polygons. Stella uses the same shapes but varies colors in the lithograph series.
“Together the objects provide visitors a chance to engage with the ‘complex simplicity’ that is the paradox of Stella’s work,” says Kennedy. “It’s the first time all of these monumental works will have been displayed in one room. In fact, until this exhibition was organized, all of them had never had been shown together,” he notes.
Perhaps even more startling is that Frank Stella is the first artist in history to create a deliberate set of paintings shaped as irregular polygons. Previously, painting were most often rectangular or more rarely, oval, circular or square, as Kennedy points out in the 134-page scholarly catalog he wrote to accompany the exhibition.
Although based on simple geometries, the Irregular Polygons comprise one of the most complex artistic statements of the artist’s career.
Each of the 11 compositions combines varying numbers of shapes to create daringly irregular outlines. Stella made four versions of each composition, changing the color combinations. Created in 1965–66, they mark a radical shift from his earlier striped paintings in their use of large fields of color. The asymmetric canvases play with illusion, confronting the artist’s previous emphasis on flatness while continuing his career-long exploration of space and volume in both painting and sculpture.
Stella first burst on the New York art scene in 1958 when some of his “black paintings” were shown in the exhibition Sixteen Americans at the Museum of Modern Art. Born in 1936, he attended Phillips Academy, Andover, and Princeton University, from which he graduated in 1958. He has lived in New York ever since.
Consistently inventive, Stella, now 74, is perhaps the most significant artist to work in the abstract tradition of painting, sculpture and print making over the past 50 years. President Barack Obama described him as “obviously a legend for his accomplishments as one of the world’s most innovative painters and sculptors” when presenting him the National Medal of Arts, the nation’s highest honor for artistic excellence, in 2010.
The Toledo exhibition of his Irregular Polygons, organized and originally shown at the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College on Oct. 9, 2010–March 13, 2011, is made possible by members of the Toledo Museum of Art. The exhibition also is supported in part through the sustainable grant program of the Ohio Arts Council.
The exhibition catalog, published by the Hood Museum is available for purchase in the TMA Museum Store and online. A free mini-guide to the exhibition is available for visitors.
With the cooperation of the Hood Museum of Art and lenders to the exhibition, the Toledo Museum of Art will present Frank Stella: Irregular Polygons from April 8–July 24 in its Canaday Gallery. Admission to the exhibition is free.
A consistent innovator at the forefront of abstract art, Stella produces his works in series, immersing himself in visual thinking and creating according to the principle of, in his words, “line, plane, volume, and point, within space.”
This exhibition presents one of each of the artist’s 11 monumental compositions for the Irregular Polygons series (1965–66), along with preparatory drawings and the 1974 print series Eccentric Polygons based on the Irregular Polygons. Stella uses the same shapes but varies colors in the lithograph series.
“Together the objects provide visitors a chance to engage with the ‘complex simplicity’ that is the paradox of Stella’s work,” says Kennedy. “It’s the first time all of these monumental works will have been displayed in one room. In fact, until this exhibition was organized, all of them had never had been shown together,” he notes.
Perhaps even more startling is that Frank Stella is the first artist in history to create a deliberate set of paintings shaped as irregular polygons. Previously, painting were most often rectangular or more rarely, oval, circular or square, as Kennedy points out in the 134-page scholarly catalog he wrote to accompany the exhibition.
Although based on simple geometries, the Irregular Polygons comprise one of the most complex artistic statements of the artist’s career.
Each of the 11 compositions combines varying numbers of shapes to create daringly irregular outlines. Stella made four versions of each composition, changing the color combinations. Created in 1965–66, they mark a radical shift from his earlier striped paintings in their use of large fields of color. The asymmetric canvases play with illusion, confronting the artist’s previous emphasis on flatness while continuing his career-long exploration of space and volume in both painting and sculpture.
Stella first burst on the New York art scene in 1958 when some of his “black paintings” were shown in the exhibition Sixteen Americans at the Museum of Modern Art. Born in 1936, he attended Phillips Academy, Andover, and Princeton University, from which he graduated in 1958. He has lived in New York ever since.
Consistently inventive, Stella, now 74, is perhaps the most significant artist to work in the abstract tradition of painting, sculpture and print making over the past 50 years. President Barack Obama described him as “obviously a legend for his accomplishments as one of the world’s most innovative painters and sculptors” when presenting him the National Medal of Arts, the nation’s highest honor for artistic excellence, in 2010.
The Toledo exhibition of his Irregular Polygons, organized and originally shown at the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College on Oct. 9, 2010–March 13, 2011, is made possible by members of the Toledo Museum of Art. The exhibition also is supported in part through the sustainable grant program of the Ohio Arts Council.
The exhibition catalog, published by the Hood Museum is available for purchase in the TMA Museum Store and online. A free mini-guide to the exhibition is available for visitors.
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When Brian P. Kennedy was named the ninth director of the Toledo Museum of Art, he was working on an exhibition devoted to Frank Stella’s Irregular Polygons for the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College. While fulfilling his final obligations as director of the Hood Museum last fall, Kennedy was encouraged by Stella to bring these important works to Toledo as well.
With the cooperation of the Hood Museum of Art and lenders to the exhibition, the Toledo Museum of Art will present Frank Stella: Irregular Polygons from April 8–July 24 in its Canaday Gallery. Admission to the exhibition is free.
A consistent innovator at the forefront of abstract art, Stella produces his works in series, immersing himself in visual thinking and creating according to the principle of, in his words, “line, plane, volume, and point, within space.”
This exhibition presents one of each of the artist’s 11 monumental compositions for the Irregular Polygons series (1965–66), along with preparatory drawings and the 1974 print series Eccentric Polygons based on the Irregular Polygons. Stella uses the same shapes but varies colors in the lithograph series.
“Together the objects provide visitors a chance to engage with the ‘complex simplicity’ that is the paradox of Stella’s work,” says Kennedy. “It’s the first time all of these monumental works will have been displayed in one room. In fact, until this exhibition was organized, all of them had never had been shown together,” he notes.
Perhaps even more startling is that Frank Stella is the first artist in history to create a deliberate set of paintings shaped as irregular polygons. Previously, painting were most often rectangular or more rarely, oval, circular or square, as Kennedy points out in the 134-page scholarly catalog he wrote to accompany the exhibition.
Although based on simple geometries, the Irregular Polygons comprise one of the most complex artistic statements of the artist’s career.
Each of the 11 compositions combines varying numbers of shapes to create daringly irregular outlines. Stella made four versions of each composition, changing the color combinations. Created in 1965–66, they mark a radical shift from his earlier striped paintings in their use of large fields of color. The asymmetric canvases play with illusion, confronting the artist’s previous emphasis on flatness while continuing his career-long exploration of space and volume in both painting and sculpture.
Stella first burst on the New York art scene in 1958 when some of his “black paintings” were shown in the exhibition Sixteen Americans at the Museum of Modern Art. Born in 1936, he attended Phillips Academy, Andover, and Princeton University, from which he graduated in 1958. He has lived in New York ever since.
Consistently inventive, Stella, now 74, is perhaps the most significant artist to work in the abstract tradition of painting, sculpture and print making over the past 50 years. President Barack Obama described him as “obviously a legend for his accomplishments as one of the world’s most innovative painters and sculptors” when presenting him the National Medal of Arts, the nation’s highest honor for artistic excellence, in 2010.
The Toledo exhibition of his Irregular Polygons, organized and originally shown at the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College on Oct. 9, 2010–March 13, 2011, is made possible by members of the Toledo Museum of Art. The exhibition also is supported in part through the sustainable grant program of the Ohio Arts Council.
The exhibition catalog, published by the Hood Museum is available for purchase in the TMA Museum Store and online. A free mini-guide to the exhibition is available for visitors.
With the cooperation of the Hood Museum of Art and lenders to the exhibition, the Toledo Museum of Art will present Frank Stella: Irregular Polygons from April 8–July 24 in its Canaday Gallery. Admission to the exhibition is free.
A consistent innovator at the forefront of abstract art, Stella produces his works in series, immersing himself in visual thinking and creating according to the principle of, in his words, “line, plane, volume, and point, within space.”
This exhibition presents one of each of the artist’s 11 monumental compositions for the Irregular Polygons series (1965–66), along with preparatory drawings and the 1974 print series Eccentric Polygons based on the Irregular Polygons. Stella uses the same shapes but varies colors in the lithograph series.
“Together the objects provide visitors a chance to engage with the ‘complex simplicity’ that is the paradox of Stella’s work,” says Kennedy. “It’s the first time all of these monumental works will have been displayed in one room. In fact, until this exhibition was organized, all of them had never had been shown together,” he notes.
Perhaps even more startling is that Frank Stella is the first artist in history to create a deliberate set of paintings shaped as irregular polygons. Previously, painting were most often rectangular or more rarely, oval, circular or square, as Kennedy points out in the 134-page scholarly catalog he wrote to accompany the exhibition.
Although based on simple geometries, the Irregular Polygons comprise one of the most complex artistic statements of the artist’s career.
Each of the 11 compositions combines varying numbers of shapes to create daringly irregular outlines. Stella made four versions of each composition, changing the color combinations. Created in 1965–66, they mark a radical shift from his earlier striped paintings in their use of large fields of color. The asymmetric canvases play with illusion, confronting the artist’s previous emphasis on flatness while continuing his career-long exploration of space and volume in both painting and sculpture.
Stella first burst on the New York art scene in 1958 when some of his “black paintings” were shown in the exhibition Sixteen Americans at the Museum of Modern Art. Born in 1936, he attended Phillips Academy, Andover, and Princeton University, from which he graduated in 1958. He has lived in New York ever since.
Consistently inventive, Stella, now 74, is perhaps the most significant artist to work in the abstract tradition of painting, sculpture and print making over the past 50 years. President Barack Obama described him as “obviously a legend for his accomplishments as one of the world’s most innovative painters and sculptors” when presenting him the National Medal of Arts, the nation’s highest honor for artistic excellence, in 2010.
The Toledo exhibition of his Irregular Polygons, organized and originally shown at the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College on Oct. 9, 2010–March 13, 2011, is made possible by members of the Toledo Museum of Art. The exhibition also is supported in part through the sustainable grant program of the Ohio Arts Council.
The exhibition catalog, published by the Hood Museum is available for purchase in the TMA Museum Store and online. A free mini-guide to the exhibition is available for visitors.
Artists on show
Contact details
Sunday
11:00 - 5:00 PM
Tuesday - Thursday
10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Friday
10:00 AM - 10:00 PM
Saturday
10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
2445 Monroe Street
Box 1013 Toledo, OH, USA 43697
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April 6, 2011
Watch this introductory video for the Toledo Museum of Art exhibition "Frank Stella: Irregular Polygons" running April 7-July 24. The introduction features TMA director Brian Kennedy, who also curated this exhibition while at the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College.
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