Study for Albany Mall [panel 2] 1968

This is Frank Stella’s Study for Albany Mall, panel 2, made with mixed media on paper. What grabs me first are the arcs, these snaking bands of color, neatly bordered in thin lines, that weave and dodge around each other. You can really feel the artist working through something here, feeling his way through this composition. The texture is flat, matte, and the colors are mostly desaturated, which keeps things calm. The paint looks thin, controlled, almost like he's using a marker. The way the colors intersect creates depth but it's also flat, like a graphic. There's a tension between the graphic quality and the handmade feel. Look at the black band on the left side, how it dips slightly – you can see Stella figuring it out as he goes. It’s a study after all, which is like a permission slip to experiment. This feels like a conversation with someone like Sol LeWitt, who also used simple forms to create complex systems. But where LeWitt is cool and cerebral, Stella feels warmer, more intuitive. It's a reminder that art is an ongoing dialogue.