Frank Stella
American, born 1936
Empress of India, 1965
Metallic powder in polymer emulsion paint on canvas, 6' 5" x 18' 8"
Gift of S. I. Newhouse, Jr.
Gallery label text, 2007:
Part of Stella's Notched-V series, begun in late 1964, Empress of India comprises four different colored chevron–shaped canvases. Stella deliberately avoided dramatic changes in color intensity, because, he reasoned, "when you have four vectored V's moving against each other, if one jumps out, you dislocate the plane and destroy the whole thing entirely." The lines parallel to the canvas edges, painted in metallic browns and ochres, contribute to Stella's perceptual play of pushing parts of the whole forward and back. Although it is unclear why Stella chose the phrase "Empress of India" for this painting, the grandly scaled work shares the title taken by Queen Victoria when India was incorporated into the British Empire.
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