Art Around Campus: A work by Frank Stella
Description
This video was created by students during the summer of 2011. It appeared on the University's website during the 2011-2012 academic year. Claire Moryan is a member of the Class of 2012 of Washington and Lee University. Please click the URI above (https://youtu.be/3i-EWTFTC-w) to watch this video. The following statement, by Claire Moryan, accompanied the video on the University's website:
The print "Referendum '70" by Frank Stella in Wilson Hall is one of my favorite pieces on campus. I especially like its eye-catching pink and yellow colors, which, although equally bright, are juxtaposed beautifully and work well together. And the curved lines and interweaving protractors keep your eyes sweeping around the piece, never stopping for a long time at one place.
Stella was born in 1936 and is considered a founding member of the post-painterly abstraction movement. In going against abstract expressionism, Stella said, "What you see is what you see," demonstrating his view that the object itself is art, rather than a representation of something emotional. In the late 1960s Stella started his "Protractor Series," in which arcs are arranged within square borders.
"Referendum '70" is a silkscreen print on paper made in 1970, and it has a similar configuration to the "Protractor Series." All the proceeds from the editions of the print went to aid the politicians in the national elections of 1970 who sought to end the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War.
Washington and Lee has four more works by Stella: three additional prints and one sculpture, all of which were a gift of Dr. John W. Poynor '62.