Maquette for Pachanak
Frank Stella
American, 1936–2024
October 1977
A small maquette by Frank Stella made from cut and layered printed metal alloy sheets, wire mesh, and rusted scraps in which the artist experiments with translating painterly rhythm, color, and pattern into a three-dimensional, collage-like relief.
What strikes you is a tangle of sinuous, ribbonlike metal shapes—some brightly printed with fragments of commercial logos and crayon marks, others pitted with rust—woven over a diamond mesh so that flat graphics and sculptural depth continually push and pull against each other.
This work records Stella’s late-1970s move beyond flat painting into shaped reliefs and object-making, helping to blur the line between painting and sculpture and to open up the use of industrial and found materials in postminimal and contemporary art.
Medium
Printed metal alloy sheets, wire mesh, and metal scraps with crayon
Dimensions
17 x 22 1/4 x 6 5/8" (43.1 x 56.4 x 16.7 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Fractional and promised gift of the artist
Accession
985.1979
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
