I had to find a way to paint abstractly, which is what I wanted to do. I couldn't forget Wassily Kandinsky and Kazimir Malevich and Piet Mondrian, I mean that was the basis. Frank Stella More Quotes by Frank Stella More Quotes From Frank Stella I don't like to say I have given my life to art. I prefer to say art has given me my life. Frank Stella giving life art Abstraction didn't have to be limited to a kind of rectilinear geometry or even a simple curve geometry. It could have a geometry that had a narrative impact. In other words, you could tell a story with the shapes. It wouldn't be a literal story, but the shapes and the interaction of the shapes and colors would give you a narrative sense. You could have a sense of an abstract piece flowing along and being part of an action or activity. That sort of turned me on. Frank Stella curves impact simple You see what you know! Frank Stella knows art One learns about painting by looking at and imitating other painters. I can't stress enough how important it is, if you are interested at all in painting, to look and to look a great deal at painting. There is no other way to find out about painting. Frank Stella stress important looks But, after all, the aim of art is to create space - space that is not compromised by decoration or illustration, space within which the subjects of painting can live. Frank Stella illustration space art All I want anyone to get out of my paintings, and all I ever get out of them, is the fact that you can see the whole idea without any confusion…What you see is what you see. Frank Stella confusion want ideas Making art is complicated because the categories are always changing. You just have to make your own art, and whatever categories it falls into will come later. Frank Stella complicated art fall What you see is what you see. Frank Stella gossip-girl love-life cheer A sculpture is just a painting cut out and stood up somewhere. Frank Stella sculpture painting cutting I always get into arguments with people who want to retain the old values in painting - the humanistic values that they always find on the canvas. If you pin them down, they always end up asserting that there is something there besides the paint on the canvas. My painting is based on the fact that only what can be seen there is there... What you see is what you see. Frank Stella want facts people I like real art. It's difficult to define 'real' but it is the best word for describing what I like to get out of art and what the best art has. It has the ability to convince you that it's present - that it's there. You could say it's authentic... but real is actually a better word, broad as it may be. Frank Stella real may art The one thing I learned is not to say anything about my own paintings. Keep my mouth shut. You'll never stop hearing what you said. It will come back to you again and again, people will always tell you about it. Even if you were the source of what's wrong with it. Frank Stella mouths say-anything people No art is any good unless you can feel how it's put together. By and large it's the eye, the hand and if it's any good, you feel the body. Most of the best stuff seems to be a complete gesture, the totality of the artist's body; you can really lean on it. Frank Stella eye hands art Architecture can't fully represent the chaos and turmoil that are part of the human personality, but you need to put some of that turmoil into the architecture, or it isn't real. Frank Stella bad-ass badass real You have bits of canvas that are unpainted and you have these thick stretcher bars. So you see that a painting is an object; that it's not a window into something - you're not looking at a landscape, you're not looking at a portrait, but you're looking at a painting. It's basically: A painting is a painting is a painting. And it's what Frank Stella said famously: What you see is what you see. Frank Stella portraits landscape bars Up until 35 I had a slightly skewed world view. I honestly believed everybody in the world wanted to make abstract paintings, and people only became lawyers and doctors and brokers and things because they couldn't make abstract paintings Frank Stella doctors artist views I'm more of a house painter.That's the way I work. Frank Stella painter house way The aim of art is to create space. Frank Stella illustration space art As far as I was concerned, with the early paintings, I liked them, I thought they were pretty good, but I didn't think it was the end of the world. I also thought of it as a kind of structure, a base to build on. So this proves I can do this and that, and they don't collapse, so then what can I do from here? How can I build on it? Frank Stella painting world thinking There's a lot of difference between being well known and being notorious and the black paintings didn't make me well known - they made me notorious. Frank Stella painting black differences
