30th Nov, 2022 18:00
20th Century & Contemporary Art
59
Frank Stella (United States 1936-)
Libertinia (from the Imaginary Places series)
colour screenprint, relief, etching, aquatint, lithograph and engraving on TGL handmade paper
Artwork date: 1995
Signature details: signed, dated and numbered 44/50 bottom left
Edition: from an edition of 50 plus 12 artist proofs
colour screenprint, relief, etching, aquatint, lithograph and engraving on TGL handmade paper
Artwork date: 1995
Signature details: signed, dated and numbered 44/50 bottom left
Edition: from an edition of 50 plus 12 artist proofs
(1)
sheet size: 55 x 126.5 cm; framed size: 64.5 x 135 x 5.5 cm
Provenance:
Private collection, Johannesburg.
Christies, New York, Prints and Multiples, 1 May 2006, lot 656.
Notes:
Published by Tyler Graphics, Ltd., Mount Kisco, New York, with their blindstamp
A year after his graduation, Frank Stella’s crucial exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, 16 Americans (16 December 1959 to 17 February 1960) catapulted his career. In the years that have followed this exhibition, the artist has contributed – in myriad ways – to how we understand and define abstract art by continuing the modernist heritage of post–World War II abstract art into the twenty-first century. In Frank Stella Unbound: Literature and Printmaking (2018), James Christen Steward, Director of Princeton University Art Museum in New Jersey, notes that Stella’s influence has been compared to Bob Dylan’s influence on music or Andy Warhol’s influence “on more or less everything”. Between 1994 and 1999, Stella created a series of prints from the literary text: The Dictionary of Imaginary Places by Alberto Mangual and Gianni Guadalupi. The multi-genre text catalogues twelve hundred fictional spaces and lands in world literature. The Imaginary Places prints found their titles in the literary text and “utilize nearly every process known in Western printmaking, fitting a dazzling variety of techniques, including lithography, screenprinting, etching, digitally enhanced engraving, mezzotint, woodcut, and relief printing, into unified compositions”[1]
Other examples from the edition form part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art, New Yok; Tate Collection, London and the Walker Art Centre collection, Minneapolis.
[1] Abbaspour, M., Brown, C. & Cooke, E. (2018). Frank Stella Unbound: Literature and Printmaking. New Jersey: Princeton University Art Museum.
Collections:
The artist is represented in numerous local and international collections, notably, the Guggenheim Museum, New York.; Museum of Modern Art, New York.; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles and the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
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Auction: 20th Century & Contemporary Art, 30th Nov, 2022
The focused sale brings to market 84 highly collectable lots, with the diverse collection showcasing highlights by modern masters including magnificent still-life compositions and a Zanzibari boat scene by Irma Stern, an Alexis Preller abstract and an early JH Pierneef landscape. Also included is a significant collection of celebrated contemporary artists: Mustafa Maluka, David Koloane, Walter Oltmann, Norman Catherine, Willem Boshoff, a rare self-portrait oil by Robert Hodgins as well as a large bronze sculpture by Zanele Muholi, the first of this new body of work to be offered on auction.
The sale features a special selection of artworks by William Kentridge. One of the most celebrated and influential living artists today, his major retrospective exhibition is currently on show at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. This is one of the most unique and high-quality Kentridge collections to come to market. Spanning his career and showcasing the many mediums in which he works, the sale features signature charcoal drawings alongside collages, tapestry, prints and sculptures.
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