Lot Essay
Stella began to produce his extraordinary Circuit series in 1980. Named after car racing circuits in Europe, these works are based on a group of twenty-four drawings and maquettes which the artist made in 1980 and which he began to realize on a large scale the following year. He made two large-scale renditions of each maquette--one in which the completed works are three times larger than the maquettes and one in which they are 4.75 times larger--and also one series on a smaller scale--1.25 times the size of the maquette. In all, there are 68 reliefs.
In the Circuit series, Stella extended his artistic vocabulary in two ways: he began to use a Flexicurve, a flexible tool made of metal and rubber that can be bent to provide an infinite variety of smooth curves. He also recovered from his workshop the negative shapes left over from earlier curves which he had cut. The long sinuous curves from the Flexicurve and the irregular, sometimes awkward shapes of the fragmentary elements dramatically altered the compositions he was able to make.
Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the Circuit series is the drama with which Stella paints the metal forms. The variety in application and texture that he is able to produce, particularly evident if a comparison is made between two versions of a given image, is remarkable. He uses wax crayons, transparent glazes and a variety of texturing devices similar to those used by the Cubists. Rubin draws a comparison between Stella and Picasso in his Cubist period, and notes that Stella made several visits to the 1980 Picasso retrospective at The Museum of Modern Art.
In the Circuit series, Stella extended his artistic vocabulary in two ways: he began to use a Flexicurve, a flexible tool made of metal and rubber that can be bent to provide an infinite variety of smooth curves. He also recovered from his workshop the negative shapes left over from earlier curves which he had cut. The long sinuous curves from the Flexicurve and the irregular, sometimes awkward shapes of the fragmentary elements dramatically altered the compositions he was able to make.
Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the Circuit series is the drama with which Stella paints the metal forms. The variety in application and texture that he is able to produce, particularly evident if a comparison is made between two versions of a given image, is remarkable. He uses wax crayons, transparent glazes and a variety of texturing devices similar to those used by the Cubists. Rubin draws a comparison between Stella and Picasso in his Cubist period, and notes that Stella made several visits to the 1980 Picasso retrospective at The Museum of Modern Art.