Lot 155
  • 155

FRANK STELLA | Of Whales in Paint; in Teeth; in Wood; in Sheet-Iron; in Stone; in Mountains; in Stars (Moby Dick Series)

Estimate
220,000 - 280,000 GBP
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Description

  • Frank Stella
  • Of Whales in Paint; in Teeth; in Wood; in Sheet-Iron; in Stone; in Mountains; in Stars (Moby Dick Series)
  • acrylic on aluminium
  • 222 by 170 by 45 cm. 87 1/2 by 67 by 17 3/4 in.
  • Executed in 1990.

Provenance

Galerie Beaubourg, Paris
Private Collection, France
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Condition

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although the overall tonality is slightly deeper and richer and fails to fully convey the metallic quality of some of the pigments visible in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition. A superficial layer of dust is adhered to the surface of the work. Extremely close inspection reveals a few minute media accretions, light handling marks, superficial scratches and some tiny losses in isolated places throughout, as well as some minute and stable drying cracks to some of the painted areas. All other surface irregularities are in keeping with the artist's working process and choice of media. No restoration is apparent when examined under ultraviolet light.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Catalogue Note

One of the world’s leading artists, Frank Stella spent over a decade creating a major series of metal reliefs, prints, and sculptures linked with Herman Melville’s classic novel Moby Dick. The monumental Of Whales in Paint; in Teeth; in Wood; in Sheet-Iron; in Stone; in Mountains; in Stars (Moby Dick Series) is undoubtedly among the most significant works from this body of work. Measuring more than two metres in height, this painted aluminium relief is equally majestic and vibrant. Stella’s arrangement of the colourful metal forms, with bold shapes layered on top of, and behind one another, gives this wall-based work a complex three-dimensional effect. Although seemingly abstract, the dazzling shapes do evoke figurative forms; at the top of the composition the observer discovers an imposing head of a mammal projecting up from pulsating waves of vivid orange and green. In his Moby-Dick series, Stella created one or more work for each of the novel’s chapters, and whilst not seeking to be a direct interpretation of the book, the artist found great inspiration in the hybrid structure of the novel. First published in 1851, Moby Dick is widely considered to be among the finest works of American literature. It tells the story of Captain Ahab’s journey to track the epic whale he encountered on a previous expedition. Stella had first read the book in his youth and about the time he also saw the 1956 film version directed by John Huston. Initially the artist was not impressed by neither the novel or the film, and it took him thirty years to resume reading Melville’s book. Stella did however not rediscover Moby Dick in a library or bookstore, his revelation instead occurred at the New York Aquarium, on the edge of Atlantic Ocean at the Coney Island Beachwalk. The artist began to explore abstract wave shapes for the first time in his early 1980s series Illustrations after El Lissitzky’s Had Gadya. He later began to associate this shape with the contours of a whale during one of his visits to the aquarium. Stella has explained this revelation, “The first thing we saw every time we went into the aquarium were the Beluga whales in the tank just as you came right in the door. They were just sort of looming over you, as it were. I just kept seeing them for about two years, and then one day the wave forms and the whales started to come together as an idea” (Frank Stella cited in: Robert K. Wallace, Frank Stella’s Moby Dick: Words and Shapes, Michigan 2000, p. 7).

In the Moby Dick series, Frank Stella daringly flouts the conventions of the traditional frame, creating a body of work that has taken him far beyond abstraction. In Of Whales in Paint the viewer encounters a marvellous synthesis of styles that brings everything from the surreal landscapes of Salvador Dalí, via the explosive paintings of Willem de Kooning, and the complex biomorphic reliefs of Jean Arp, to mind. Critics have celebrated Stella’s more sculptural work as the natural progression of his early prodigious career. William Rubin, the influential curator of painting and sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art in New York was so taken by a visit to Stella’s studio in 1987 that he expressed: “Standing amid the dozens of paper models that represent the second group of new paintings… during a recent visit to Stella’s studio,” he enthused, “I could not but be overwhelmed by the sheer profusion of his ideas, and the immense outpouring of energy on which they ride… I would consider that the best of the metal reliefs of recent years are superior even to the finest paintings of the early sixties. And with the prospect of decades of development lying ahead, one can imagine that there is still greater and more unexpected work to come” (William Rubin in: Exh. Cat., New York, Museum of Modern Art, Frank Stella 1970-1987, 1987, p. 149).