LACMA’s “Frank Stella: Selections from the Permanent Collection” fails to be an example of the artist’s influential career

By: Linnea Wee

Executive Arts Editor

Los Angeles County Museum of Arts’ newest temporary exhibit, “Frank Stella: Selections from the Permanent Collection”, is an underwhelming glimpse into the artist’s successful career in modern art.

“Frank Stella: Selections from the Permanent Collection” showcases a small handful of Frank Stella’s work that he has produced throughout his career as an artist. Although each art piece is impressive and colorful, the exhibit as a whole fails to provide an impactful experience to the attendee.

Frank Stella is an American sculptor and painter whose main focus has been to further modern art through his work with minimalism and abstract pieces. “Frank Stella: Selections from the Permanent Collection” was put together to showcase all the specific examples of the different mediums in which he worked. The exhibit includes recent paintings and sculptures as well as pieces from the beginning of Stella’s career in the 1950.

The exhibit consists of ten pieces that are consolidated into one room. The exhibit does succeed in catching the attention of the attendees because of the vibrant colors used in the paintings and the large size of the sculptures. However, interest is easily lost after a short time looking at the small selection of Frank Stella’s work.

A memorable piece in “Frank Stella: Selections from the Permanent Collection” is the “St. Michael’s Counterguard” sculpture created in 1984. The sculpture plays with abstract shapes jutting out of one another to create a shape that is interesting to the eye. “St. Michael’s Counterguard” is a prime example of Stella’s innovation with abstract expressionism as it grew in the twentieth century.

“Frank Stella: Selections from the Permanent Collection” also included a few of Stella’s minimalist paintings which used bold colors and straight, sharp lines. For example, his painting named “WHOM” is a simple square piece with different colors squares shrinking into the center.

Frank Stella’s career is undeniably innovative and successful, having pioneered minimalist, abstract art. However, the exhibit at the LACMA is too small and ultimately anticlimactic.

“Frank Stella: Selections from the Permanent Collection” open until September 15 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. For more information, visit lacma.org.