Ever since his sensational debut in the late 1950s with austere geometric abstractions based on black stripes, Frank Stella (b. 1936) has consistently reigned among the leading figures in the world of American contemporary art. Over the years Stella’s styles have continually changed, their spectral span progressively extending to his adoption of shaped canvases, his introduction of exuberant colors, relief works that leap out from painted surfaces, and even sculptures and architectural work.
  From the mid-1960s Stella also began delving into printmaking, producing a wealth of prints through the years. From the 1990s in particular, his printmaking process began to influence his other work forms, and as such his prints became a vital medium indispensable to his output as a whole. Throughout these many years Stella has been supported by Kenneth Tyler, who was instrumental in launching Stella into printmaking. It was at Tyler Graphics in New York that the bulk of Stella’s most well-known prints have been created.
  Stella’s Imaginary Places series, started in 1994, is based on The Dictionary of Imaginary Places (1987), a book co-authored by Alberto Manguel and Gianni Guadalupi. The book acts as a guide to imaginary places that have appeared in literary works throughout the ages, and Stella uses those same place names in the titles of his works in his series. In Imaginary Places Stella, through a complex blending of techniques, achieves prints packed with myriad visual elements. His works overflow with what might even seem an overabundance of colors and forms, and for Stella, who consistently probed the expression of dynamic pictorial space as his printmaking theme, Imaginary Places was a point of consummation.
  This exhibition will display Frank Stella’s works of the late 1990s, with a focus on his Imaginary Places series, held in CCGA’s Tyler Graphics Archive Collection to introduce the work that can be considered the grand sum of his printmaking artistry. Also on exhibit will be a large tapestry woven in a design taken from Dubiaxo, one of the works in the series. We hope the exhibition will serve as a worthy opportunity for visitors to become familiar with the inimitable appeal of Frank Stella’s prints.