Frank Stella Pushing the Limits of Experimental Abstraction BY RACHEL VANCELET TE
“I don’t like to say I have given my life to art. I prefer to say art has given me life.” By Frank Stella
T
he artist, born in 1936, recently broke auction records in May with a rare and sought after Black painting titled Point of Pines. The painting, with a low estimate of 25 million, hit a record-breaking price and sold for 28,082,500 USD! Stella’s career retrospective in 2015 at the Whitney Museum continued to make
his art rise higher in the eyes of collectors and has ushered in a new wave of high auction records. Over the years, this rise in prices and auction records have shocked audiences, collectors and the art industry alike and has helped cement his permanent place in the history books. The Black painting Point of Pines comes out of a limited series of 28 canvases executed in 1959. Four of
the works from the series were exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art the same year, and this particular large-scale painting consignment for sale at Christies auction house gave them an advantage, helping win the record-breaking sale for Stella this season.
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