Study for Albany Mall [panel 1] 1968

This ‘Study for Albany Mall’ is by Frank Stella, and I’m guessing it was made with gouache and pencil. The muted pastel shades create a harmonious rhythm across the canvas. Stella's lines are so precise, creating interlocking semi-circles and geometric shapes, and it makes you wonder, what does it take to make something that looks so clean and crisp? The brown background acts as a grounding force, contrasting with the cooler tones of the semi-circles and rectangles. Look closely, you can still see the pencil lines underneath the layers of paint. The hand-drawn quality and texture gives the piece an immediacy, which makes sense for a study. The way the shapes nestle together creates an illusion of depth, like tunnels overlapping. There is an exchange of ideas happening between Stella and artists like Josef Albers, who were deeply concerned with colour theory, and the way colours influence each other depending on their placement. It’s interesting to see how Stella takes these ideas and runs with them. What do you think?