Frank Stella (American, b. 1936). Chapel of the Holy Ghost (model), 1992, Cast stainless steel, 31 x 34 x 33", Lent by the artist, Photo by Steven Sloman © 2007.

Frank Stella (American, b. 1936). Chinese Pavillion (model), 1993. Bronze. 10 3/4 x 37 x 46 in. (27.3 x 94 x 116.8 cm). Lent by the artist, © 2007 Frank Stella.

Frank Stella (American, b. 1936). adjoeman, 2004. Stainless steel and carbon fiber. 17' 10" x 17' 2' x 5'. 4", Lent by the artist, Photograph: The Metropolitan Museum of Art / Anna Marie Kellen.

Frank Stella (American, b. 1936). Chinese Pavillion (in progress), 2007. Carbon epoxy composite. 14' 9-1/2" x 33' 8-1/2" x 30' 3-1/2", Lent by the artist, Photograph: The Metropolitan Museum of Art / Anna Marie Kellen.

The Metropolitan
Museum of Art
1000 Fifth Avenue
at 82nd Street
212-535-7710
New York
The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden
Frank Stella on the Roof
May 1-October 28, 2007

Two of the sculptures on view, each more than 14 feet high — adjoeman (2004) and memantra (2005) — are from Frank Stella's Bamboo series (2002-2007). Both titles can be found in the glossary of Gregory Bateson and Margaret Mead's 1942 Balinese Character: A Photographic Analysis in Balinese, adjoeman means "showing off, decorative," while memantra is a "verbal form from mantra, a prayer or incantation." While the black of the carbon fiber harks back to the artist's early landmark Black paintings, the steel tubing has been incorporated into his more recent relief and sculptural work. The structure of adjoeman is suggestive of a sailing craft, with its base and its mastlike, boomlike features, as well as its sail-like component. Memantra is more exuberant and improvisational, with spiraling, swooping, curving steel conduits that cradle a central molded-carbon-fiber slab, suggesting sculptural calligraphy.

Frank Stella on the Roof consists of recent monumental works in stainless steel and carbon fiber by the artist. They are displayed in the 10,000-square-foot Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden, the outdoor space atop Metropolitan Museum for large-scale sculpture exhibitions with eyepopping views of Central Park and the Manhattan skyline.

Frank Stella on the Roof explores further the artist's recent forays in sculpture and architecture through works in stainless steel and carbon fiber.

Also on the Roof Garden will be Frank Stella's most recent work, Chinese Pavilion (2007), which has never before been exhibited. The structure of the piece explores the sort of leaf formation that has been one of the artist's chief architectural themes. Fabricated for the Museum's rooftop setting, this pavilion-like work-in-progress is officially part of the concurrent exhibition Frank Stella: Painting into Architecture at the Metropolitan, and serves to unite the two exhibitions.

During the 1970s — a time of dramatic change in his work — Stella introduced relief into his art (characterized as "maximalist" painting, for its sculptural qualities), initiated by the large-scale, constructed Polish Village collage-reliefs (1971-73). He then began to use aluminum as the primary support for his paintings, as in the fanciful and freely painted Exotic Birds series (1976-80) and the more exaggerated and garishly colored Indian Birds (1978-79). As the 1980s progressed, with such series as Circuit, Shards, South African Mines, Malta, and Cones and Pillars, the artist's work became increasingly baroque in character, improvisational in aesthetic, explosive with high color, and infused with energy and exuberance. With the Moby Dick series (1986-97), the progressively deep relief of Stella's paintings gave way to full three-dimensionality. In the 1990s, having consistently tested the limits of the conventions of painting, Stella began producing free-standing metal sculpture — often on a massive scale — and developing full-fledged architectural projects.

In his recent work Stella continues to move far beyond painting's traditional limits, working freely in three dimensions.

Frank Stella on the Roof is organized by Gary Tinterow, Engelhard Curator in Charge, and Anne L. Strauss, Associate Curator, both in the Department of Nineteenth-Century, Modern, and Contemporary Art at the Metropolitan Museum. Exhibition design is by Michael Langley, Senior Exhibition Designer; graphics are by Barbara Weiss, Graphic Designer; and lighting is by Clint Ross Coller and Richard Lichte, Senior Lighting Designers, all of the Metropolitan Museum's Design Department.

Frank Stella (American, b. 1936). memantra, 2005, Stainless steel and carbon fiber. 14 ft. x 20 ft. 7 in. x 15 ft. 4", Lent by the artist, Photograph: The Metropolitan Museum of Art/ Anna Marie Kellen.