Marriage of Reason and Squalor from Black Series I
1967
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
one from a portfolio of nine lithographs on wove J. Barcham Green paper
Dimensions
sheet: 38 x 57.7 cm (14 15/16 x 22 11/16 in.)
Classification
Portfolio
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Benjamin B. Smith
Accession Number
1985.47.199.4
Art Historical Context
Frank Stella's *Marriage of Reason and Squalor from Black Series I (1967) is a striking lithograph from a portfolio of nine prints, capturing the bold minimalism that defined the artist's early career. Created on high-quality wove J. Barcham Green paper, each sheet measures 38 x57.7 cm, Stella's signature approach of stark black forms and precise lines. This work draws from his groundbreaking Black Paintings of the late 1950s, where he painting to its essentials—challenging viewers to confront shape, color, and surface without illusionistic depth. The provocative title, evoking a union of inte...
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. ...