{"data":{"id":"1280","type":"artist","attributes":{"id":1280,"topgoose_id":770,"tms_id":1280,"display_name":"Frank Stella","sort_name":"Stella Frank","display_date":"1936–2024","begin_date":"1936","end_date":"2024","biography":"\u003cp\u003eIn 1959, shortly after graduating from\nPrinceton University, twenty-three-year-old\nFrank Stella embarked on a radical group\nof works that have come to be known as the\nBlack Paintings. Like the other paintings\nin the series,\u003cem\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/em\u003e\u003ca href=\"/collection/works/2964\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eDie Fahne hoch!\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e consists of a\nstark geometric pattern of uniform black\nstripes—a dramatic departure from the\ngesturalism of Abstract Expressionist\npainting then in vogue. Further distinctive\nfeatures include the deep stretcher on\nwhich the work is mounted, which allows\nthe painting to assert its presence as\na physical object; and the white lines, which\nturn out not to be applied but rather the\nbare canvas left exposed between areas\nof black pigment. Rejecting personal\nexpression and illusionistic representation\nin favor of reductive intellectual structures,\nthe Black Paintings redefined painting as\na literal, object-based practice and\nanticipated the emergence of Minimalism\nduring the 1960s. As Stella remarked:\n“My painting is based on the fact that\nonly what can be seen there is there. It is\nreally an object. . . . What you see is\nwhat you see.” Nonetheless, \u003cem\u003eDie Fahne\nhoch!\u003c/em\u003e is not devoid of allusion. The work’s\nprovocative German title, meaning “the\nbanner raised,” comes from the marching\nanthem of the Nazi Party, linking the\ncruciform structure and dark austerity of\nthe large-scale canvas to a remembrance\nof that period. The title may also be a\nreference to Stella’s contemporary Jasper\nJohns, whose American flag paintings, begun\njust a few years prior, paved the way\nfor Stella to raise his own aesthetic banner.\u003c/p\u003e","on_view":false,"artport":false,"biennial":true,"collection":true,"ulan_id":"500020533","wikidata_id":"Q375268","created_at":"2017-08-30T15:50:49.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-04-24T01:31:57.418-04:00","links":{"artworks":"/api/artists/1280/artworks","exhibitions":"/api/artists/1280/exhibitions"}}}}