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Frank Stella
Steller's Albatross 5X, 1976

Artwork Info

Artwork title
Steller's Albatross 5X
Artist name
Frank Stella
Date created
1976
Classification
sculpture
Medium
mixed media on aluminum
Dimensions
120 in. × 165 in. × 16 1/2 in. (304.8 cm × 419.1 cm × 41.91 cm)
Credit
The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Copyright
© Frank Stella / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Permanent URL
https://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/FC.476.A-Q
Artwork status
Not on view at this time.

Audio Stories

Artist Nate Boyce shares his take on Stella’s relief painting

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SFX: Music  

 

NATE BOYCE:  

It’s so flamboyant and almost comedic. It almost seems like a parody. 

 

CAITLIN HASKELL:  

I mean, the palette is, um — you know, it’s a little cringe-worthy.  

 

NARRATOR:  

We’re talking to artist Nate Boyce and curator Caitlin Haskell about what is going on with this painting.  

 

BOYCE:  

It’s just so, it’s so ugly, you know?  

 

HASKELL:  

Stella was very critically aware, and he was incredibly attuned to what was considered good taste. And that, of course, can be something that’s limiting, as well. And I think it was a very deliberate strategy to push those boundaries and to very clearly move into the territory of bad taste. 

 

BOYCE:  

I love Frank Stella. [laughs] The elements kind of move. They have space to breathe, and this sort of implied motion. It sort of demonstrates the way painting can feel alive. It’s painting that’s verging into architectural space. You can actually almost move inside of it. You can kind of feel what it would be like to be inside the painting.  

 

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Audio Description

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transcripts

NARRATOR:

You’re standing in front of a very large metallic artwork by Frank Stella. Titled Steller’s Albatross 5X, and made in 1976, the three-dimensional, or “relief”, painting features multiple cutouts that dangle and protrude from a painted aluminum background. It stands 10 feet high, and is almost fourteen feet wide, and is about a foot and a half deep. Every inch of the piece is covered with stuck-on shapes, splatters of paint, scribbles, and wild brushstrokes. It has so much depth and so many different planes and angles, it feels almost like a pop-up book. 

This painting feels aggressive, off-kilter and noisy. The color palette is deliberately clashing with deep blues, marigold yellows, bright pinks and greens churning around each other. In the center, two massive yellow swirls command your attention. They are separate, individual cutouts resembling architectural drafting tools known as French curves. The vertical swirl, looping downward like the letter “j” protrudes from a large square. The square itself is painted dark blue, black, and forest green, with white scribbles. The yellow “j” that juts out from the square has been blotted with a dark, grainy texture. Just above it, the second yellow swirl lays horizontally across the top of the square. Its center has been partially cut away, allowing the square behind it to show through. The horizontal swirl is outlined with a wide, smudgy marine blue. To the right, another swirl painted raspberry reaches toward the upper right corner of the painting. All of these pieces cast shadows onto the aluminum structure. 

In the lower left corner, a thin, metal cutout rises vertically, canting to the left. It’s painted green and pink. Immediately to its right is a teal leaf-like shape covered in red and yellow scribbles. The shape is tilted inward, cutting into the interior space of the painting. Running across the bottom of the artwork is a horizontal metal plank painted dark green, and covered with jagged, white brushstrokes and vibrant green scribbles. It almost seems to be floating in front of the painting. In the lower right corner of the piece, it intersects with a thin strip of metal that rises vertically, painted and scribbled on in three different shades of red.  

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Other Works by Frank Stella

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