| Artist: | Fank Stella |
|
|---|---|---|
| Title: | Empress of India [Running V series] | |
| Date: | 1965 | |
| Nationality: | American | |
| Context: | Minimalism | |
| Movement: | ||
| Materials: | ||
| Subject: geometry rules the composition; there is a direct correspondence between the internal motif and the field or shape of the canvas; flat pictorial surface is emphasized without any illusions of spatial depth; hard-edge, geometric abstraction with a canvas shaped as interlocking "V" patterns. Style: the canvas shape is designed around the internal trackings of its "Running V" design; entropic design--tracking randomly all over without any clear sense of direction; asserts the flatness of the pictorial field; no modeling; no variation in tone; no illusionistic space; no personal touch. Context: part of Minimalism's efforts to strip the image down to its skeletal primary structure; "less is more;" focus on the surface plane; you cannot read back into space illusionistically here, but only laterally across the surface; you cannot even read from part to part; Stella focuses on shape as the critical factor that fills the field; the painter as problem solver, rigorously systematic rather than emotional or expressionistic. | ||
