Artist known in Korea as 'Amabel' at POSCO Center
Storm with 'Black Painting' painted with household paint
WP "Innovator leading the era of minimalism"
Frank Stella, an American painter who led minimalism, passed away at the age of 87 on the 4th (local time) at his home in New York.
According to foreign media including The New York Times on the 4th, Frank Stella died at his home in Manhattan, New York. Local media reported that his cause of death was lymphoma at the age of 87 this year.
Stella was a representative figure of the American art world after World War II, known as an innovative artist who persistently explored color and form. After abstract expressionism swept the New York art scene, he led minimalism from the 1960s and was actively involved in sculpture and public art in the 1990s.
Stella's works, which are flat, monochromatic, and patterned, greatly influenced artists who led the New York art scene in the 1940s and 1950s such as Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock. Additionally, The Washington Post evaluated his work as a challenge to the colorful and lively style of abstract expressionists.
Born in 1936 into an Italian-American family in Malden, Massachusetts, the late artist studied history and art at Princeton University. After graduating from college, he gained early fame in his twenties with his representative work and a fresh shock to the contemporary art world, the 'Black Paintings' series.
This work, which instantly elevated the young artist to the global stage, is known to have been painted using brushes he used while working as a house painter to earn money and a one-dollar household paint can.
The 'Black Paintings,' which reveal thin unpainted canvas lines between dark stripes, are still considered masterpieces representing American contemporary art history.
The sculpture "Flowering Structure, Amabel" installed in front of POSCO Center on Teheran-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul [Photo by Yonhap News]
In the 1960s, Stella was the first to present paintings on canvases of various shapes such as trapezoids, pentagons, and hexagons, moving away from square canvases. He produced numerous series consisting of over 100 paintings, prints, and sculptures, leading the New York art scene with creative ideas.
In Korea, he is well known for the sculpture 'Flowering Structure, Amabel' installed in front of the POSCO Center on Teheran-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul. Commissioned by POSCO and installed in 1997, this work was once threatened with removal amid controversy over its appearance. In 2016, it was selected as one of the 'Top 10 Most Hated Public Sculptures' by Artnet News, a global online art media outlet.
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