Study for Albany Mall [panel 1]
1968
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
color felt-tip pen (over screenprint in black?)
Dimensions
overall: 45.4 x 98.1 cm (17 7/8 x 38 5/8 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund
Accession Number
1981.99.1
Art Historical Context
Frank Stella's *Study for Albany Mall [panel 1]* (1968) is a dynamic preparatory drawing for one of the artist's ambitious large-scale murals commissioned for the Empire State Plaza (also known as the Albany Mall) in Albany, New York. Created during Stella's pivotal shift toward shaped canvases and complex geometric abstractions, this work captures the experimental energy of late-1960s American minimalism. At 45.4 x 98.1 cm, it hints at the monumental scale of the final panels, which spanned hundreds of feet and marked Stella's bold entry into public architecture-integrated art. Executed in v...
About the Artist
Frank Stella
Frank Stella, born on May 12, 1936, in Malden, Massachusetts, to first-generation Italian-American parents, grew up immersed in art from an early age. His father, a gynecologist who painted houses to fund medical school, enlisted young Stella in sanding and scraping tasks as an informal apprenticeship, while his mother, an artist who painted landscapes, further nurtured his creative inclinations. ...