From the Archive: Frank Stella on Art

Though known first and foremost as a visual artist who has continually brought new complexity to abstraction, Frank Stella has also distinguished himself as a gifted writer and lecturer in art history. In this artist talk, originally presented on June 12, 2004, as part of SFMOMA’s Phyllis Wattis Distinguished Lecture Series, Stella speaks about the work of three artists he admires: Hans Hofmann, Larry Poons, and Tim Hawkinson. In his introduction Stella refers to this trio as “a version of the three ages of man,” with one older, one middle-aged, and another from “a generation that [he] simply cannot hope to understand.” He delivers a short lecture on each of the artists and concludes the evening with some discussion of his own work during a question-and-answer session with the audience.