Frank Orbach: The Growth of a Sketch Master

Author: Robert Hughes (Australia)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-09-01
Features: Frank Stella is a renowned figurative painter in the present day, and his paintings and sketches can be found in most important public and private collections in Europe and America. This biography by Robert Hughes, which has received unanimous praise, is a comprehensive study of the artist's work—featuring Stella's selected most important works from his career, along with Hughes's outstanding writing, which is itself a masterpiece in its own right. "Exceptional and magnificent—so clear, so comprehensive, it will undoubtedly become the foundation for all future research on Stella. Hughes's book is exquisitely crafted, with magnificent images that complement its refined text." —Art Review "In this richly illustrated book, Hughes expresses the theme appropriately, evident both in his description of the painter's life and in his analysis of his works." —Financial Times
This is an era of decline in painting. Is there still anyone who knows how to draw a human sketch? Those students, from primary school to graduate school, often wonder why the sketches they painstakingly practice turn out so stiff, mechanical, childish, and dull; yet the same blank sheet of paper and a black charcoal stick, when wielded by masters like Leonardo da Vinci or Edgar Degas, can transform into vibrant, three-dimensional line drawings that one can turn around to admire. Has the great tradition of sketches and oil paintings become a legend or even a myth? Have the overwhelming array of installation, performance, and other so-called "non-framed," "postmodern," "new media," "avant-garde," and "cutting-edge" popular art forms completely "killed" traditional art? Fortunately, there are still masters like Frank Stella. He is both traditionalist and innovative, pioneering new paths. He connects the past, points directly to the concrete reality of the present, and yet also reveals the future. This is truly "new." He once again tells people what painting can and cannot do, and he enables painting to transcend its limitations within its own scope. This is what the biography of this remarkable painter, Robert Stella, tells us.