Frank Stella, K.81 combo (K.37 and K.43) large size, 2009

Mark Joshua Epstein: Take a moment to look at the sides of this sculpture. Walk around so you can see all the details and then find a comfortable spot where you’re not too close to the artwork.

What I notice about this piece is that we get this repeated shape. If you look right at the middle of the sculpture, we get this kind of waveform which comes over and over and over again, almost radiating out from the middle. But they’re all in different colors, so we get colors that we think of with water and then we get colors that definitely we don’t think of with water.

This piece was actually inspired by a musician named Domenico Scarlatti, who lived in the seventeenth century. What’s interesting to me about this sculpture is, as an artist, how do you make something musical into something visual? How can you take sounds and tones and notes and make them into something that’s mostly for the eyes instead of the ears?

I also love with this work that it almost feels like it’s going to topple over on you. It’s attached to the floor and to the wall, but it looks like a whirlwind of energy.