- Title
- Getty Tomb
- Date Made
- 1959
- Medium
- Black enamel on canvas
- Dimensions
- 84 x 96 in. (213.36 x 243.84 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.63.21
- Collecting Area
- Modern Art
- Curatorial Notes
Getty Tomb is one of about two dozen works by Frank Stella known as the Black Paintings (1958–60), which are composed of parallel bands of flat black paint separated by thin lines of unpainted canvas. To make these works, Stella applied commercial paint with a house painter’s brush, which dictated the width of the black stripes. Eliminating illusionistic space and any narrative or symbolic allusions, this series called attention to the physical properties of paint and canvas, conveying Stella’s statement that “what you see is what you see.” With their highly controlled brushwork and minimal compositions, the Black Paintings were a radical departure from Abstract Expressionism.
Wall label, 2021.
- Provenance
The artist (1936-2024); [Leo Castelli Gallery, New York]; [Everett Ellin Gallery, Los Angeles]; sold in 1963 to LACMA.
- Selected Bibliography
- Orsenna, Erik; Zelevansky, Lynn; Franz, Erich; Morellet, Francois; Le Nouene, Patrick. Francois Morellet: 1926-2006 etc...Recentes Fantaisies. France: Musee des Beaux-Arts d'Angers, 2006.
