TOLEDO – Celebrated American abstract artist Frank Stella, a 2010 winner of the U.S. National Medal of
Arts, will discuss his work with Brian P. Kennedy, director of the Toledo Museum of Art, at the
Peristyle Thursday at 6 p.m.
An exhibit "Frank Stella: Irregular Polygons" opens Friday and continues through July 24.
The Thursday event, which will be moderated by Tyler Green, noted art critic and blogger from Modern Art
Notes, inaugurates a new series of public programs featuring renowned artists and scholars at the
museum.
A public preview of the new exhibition and book signing follow the presentation.
Kennedy was working on an exhibition devoted to Frank Stella’s Irregular Polygons for the Hood Museum of
Art at Dartmouth College when he was named the ninth director of the Toledo Museum of Art. While
fulfilling his final obligations as director of the Hood Museum last fall, Stella encouraged Kennedy to
bring these important works to Toledo as well.
With the cooperation of the Hood Museum of Art and lenders to the exhibition, the Toledo Museum of Art
presents in its Canaday Gallery. Admission to the exhibition is free.
Stella produces his works in series, immersing himself in visual thinking and creating according to the
principle of, in his words, "line, plane, volume, and point, within space."
This exhibition presents one of each of the artist’s 11 monumental compositions for the Irregular
Polygons series created in 1965 and 1966, along with preparatory drawings and the 1974 print series
"Together the objects provide visitors a chance to engage with the ‘complex simplicity’ that is the
paradox of Stella’s work," says Kennedy, who became director of the museum last Sept. 1. "It’s
the first time all of these monumental works will have been displayed in one room. In fact, until this
exhibition was organized, all of them had never had been shown together," he notes.
What’s perhaps even more startling is that Frank Stella’s series was the first to be planned by an artist
as a deliberate set of paintings shaped as irregular polygons. Before Stella, most often paintings were
rectangular or more rarely, oval, circular or square, as Kennedy points out in the 134-page scholarly
catalog he wrote to accompany the exhibition.
Although based on simple geometries, the Irregular Polygons comprise one of the most complex artistic
statements of Stella’s career.
Also, the museum will host "Dinner with the Director: The Shaped Canvas" April 21, 7 p.m., in
the Classic Court. Kennedy will discuss the tendency over many centuries in the Western world toward the
non-rectangular painting, and how some artists came to embrace the idea Frank Stella executed in his
Irregular Polygons series.
Seating is limited. Tickets are $100 for museum members and $120 nonmembers) are all-inclusive and can be
purchased by calling 419-254-5771 ext. 7432.
