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.