I found this artwork quite fascinating as it was inspired by a chapter title in Moby Dick. I remember reading Moby Dick in university and it was quite a slog. It's an amazing novel but very complex especially for a 20 year old. This piece of art seems to capture what my brain was like reading it:)
| FRANK STELLA |
| The Musket, 1990 mixed media on aluminum, 74 1/2 x 77 1/2 x 33 in. |
Stella’s 60+ year career is defined by his consistent effort to reimagine the capabilities of his materials and their impact on an artwork’s surface. When rectangular canvases proved too restrictive, he painted on canvases of irregular shapes. Then, he pushed even further by building and painting multi-tiered structures, the result of which is what we see here. Executed in 1990, The Musket is built from cut, trimmed, bent, and torqued honeycomb aluminum incised and painted in a wide range of fluorescent, metallic and acid colors that explode into low and medium relief. Stella borrowed the title from chapter 123 of Melville’s novel Moby Dick as this artwork is from one of the most significant phases of Stella’s career where he tapped into the novel as a rich source of inspiration to build challenging, unforgettable narratives. |
