Frank Stella, Les Indes Galantes II, 1973
Lithograph in colours on J. Green mould-made paper
Printed by Cook Hammond and Kell Ltd., Mitcham
Published by Petersburg Press Ltd., London
Signed and numbered 28/100 in pencil (there were also 20 APs)
This piece refers specifically to Stella's Concentric Squares and Mitred Mazes series, a group of paintings created in the 1960s that was to prove a major breakthrough in his practice as a painter. As in Stella's most iconic works, an exhilarating tension is maintained between the exuberant colour palette and the strict, unyielding logic of the grid. This is heightened further by unmistakable traces of the artist's hand in the carefully applied bands of lithographic crayon. The irregular placement of the diagonal beginning at the upper right ensures that the composition does not converge precisely in the centre of the image, creating a destabilising sense of clockwise movement. The image remains firmly non-representational but admits the possibility of spatial illusionism in its combination of colours and light values.
The title Les Indes Galantes is taken from a 17th century opera-ballet by Jean-Philippe Rameau about Cupid's quest to understand the nature of love. In 1973 Stella created five lithographs to correspond with the five acts of Rameau's work. Across these prints the artist utilised only the primary and secondary colours along with five shades of grey. Stella's titles are an important element of his work, loading abstract images with profound emotional meaning.
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