Furg (1975)

Frank Philip Stella

five colour offset lithograph and six colour silkscreen on Arches paper

Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Oxford

Classification:

Physical Object Description:

Inscribed, in pencil, bottom right: State I 5/18 F. Stella '75

Technique:

Lithograph, Silkscreen

Dimensions:

43.2 x 55.9 cm

Accession Number:

WA1983.68

Credit:

Presented by the Contemporary Art Society, 1982

Scheme:

Historic Purchase by Purchaser (1914-2008)

Ownership history:

Purchased from the Waddington Galleries, London by Michael Henry Glendower Page, Lord Croft (1916-1997) for the Contemporary Art Society, 11 March 1980; presented to the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Oxford, 1982

Relationship:

Michael Henry Glendower Page Lord Croft Waddington Custot, London Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Oxford

Subject:

Abstract, Minimalism

Furg (1975) has a geometric pattern and colourful design representative of Frank Stella's minimalist style, as well as his consistent engagement with printmaking as a process. Stella first became interested in printmaking in the mid-1960s, while working alongside master printer Kenneth Tyler at Gemini G.E.L. By 1973, he had a print studio installed in his New York house. Furg was part of a benefit portfolio created to raise funds for the choreographer Merce Cunningam's eponymous school and dance company, with whom Stella had also worked on the sets and costumes of the dancepiece Scramble. The other artists who contributed to the portfolio include John Cage, Jasper Johns, Robert Morris, Bruce Nauman and Andy Warhol.

Furg perfectly demonstrates Stella's enduring appeal: the hypnotic arrangement of vibrant contrasting colours and geometric shapes. The rows of coloured strips hint at the shape of a rectangle, albeit with a dip in the centre. The strips alternative in colour and length, seemingly at random. The multi-coloured shape occupies only the bottom half of the print, leaving the top half empty.

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