Frank Stella was born in Malden, Massachusetts in 1936. His artistic development flourished by visiting New York art galleries. Prior to moving to New York to pursue his art in 1958, Stella graduated from Princeton University. Stella began his career drawn to the flat surfaces seen in Barnett Newmans works. His work focused on the concept of minimalism, taking away any symbolism from his art. He became known as a hard-edge painter. Stella’s art developed over the years and eventually turned away from minimalistic paintings. In the 1970’s, Stella created colorful, mixed media reliefs that brought in more organic movement into his work. Stella began to add more three dimensional forms into his work. By the 1990’s, Stella’s work completely transformed and he began producing freestanding sculptures.
Today, Stella’s works are held in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Kunstmuseum Basel, the Art Institute of Chicago, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and the Tate Gallery in London, among others.