MarkingsVerso, top to bottom:
Blue and white sticker: "H. G. OLLENDORFF / FINE ART PACKERS / NEW YORK"
White slip, black text: "Artist: Frank Stella / Title: MOULTONVILLE III, 1966 / Medium: Enamel on canvas / Lender: Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum / Exhibition: THE DISAPPEARANCE / AND REAPPEARANCE OF THE IMAGE / Catalog No.: 73 / Project No.: 67-06 / INTERNATIONAL ART PROGRAM, NATION COLLECTION OF FINE ARTS, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTE, WASHINGTON, D. C. 20560 / SI/NCFA 2829 3 - 7 - 67"
White slip, red text: "THE PASADENA ART MUSEUM / Title Moultonville III / Artist Frank Stella / Lender Ferus/Pace Gallery / Exhibitied Oct 17 - Nov 20, 1966"
Blue sticker, white text: "Do not hang / in direct sunlight / or over / heating vent"
White slip, black text: "F67-13 Painting - American / Frank Stella (1936- ) / Moultonvill, Ill., 1965-66 / Enamel on canvas / 88 x 123 in. (max h x max w) /
72-1/4 x 83-1/2 (min h x min w) / (Gift of the Friends of Art) / COLLECTION: / THE NELSON-ATKINS MUSEUM OF ART / KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI"
DescriptionSeven-sided shape composed of juxtaposed geometric forms, each a different color: left to right, royal blue, light blue, aqua, ochre, gray. Each form set off by line of unpainted canvas.Gallery Label
Frank Stella stated that a picture is "a flat surface with paint on it-nothing more." His rejection of imagery and expressive gestures is reflected in a lack of subject matter and the flatness of the paint in Moultonville III. The nothing more-ness extends to the title, too. It is simply words without a connection to content or meaning.
Stella's arrangement of colors in Moultonville III creates optical effects with the geometric forms appearing to advance and recede in space. "Rather than having the painting full of gestures, the painting itself became a gesture," he explained.
Provenance
With Leo Castelli Inc. New York, by 1967;
Purchased from Leo Castelli Inc. by the Friends of the Art, Kansas
City, MO, 1967;
Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1967.
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