Grey Scramble, Double Concentric Squares
1966
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
marker with white oil paint on graph paper
Dimensions
sheet: 43.4 × 56 cm (17 1/16 × 22 1/16 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Lynn K. Altman Family Trust
Accession Number
2020.169.14
Art Historical Context
Frank Stella's *Grey Scramble, Doublecentric Squares* (1966) is a captivating drawing that exemplifies the artist's innovative approach to abstraction during a pivotal era in modern art. Created on graph paper using marker and white oil paint, modestly scaled work (43.4 × 56 cm) reveals Stella's precise experimentation with form and space. As a leading figure in Minimalism and Postainterly Abstraction, rejected emotional expression in favor of stark geometry, famously declaring, "What you see is what you see." This piece, likely a study for larger paintings, features interlocking concentric sq...
About the Artist
Frank Stella
Frank Stella, born on May 12, 1936, in Malden, Massachusetts, to first-generation Italian-American parents, grew up immersed in art from an early age. His father, a gynecologist who painted houses to fund medical school, enlisted young Stella in sanding and scraping tasks as an informal apprenticeship, while his mother, an artist who painted landscapes, further nurtured his creative inclinations. ...