A Bower in the Arsacides, Frank Stella; Tyler Graphics Ltd.

Artwork Overview

Frank Stella; Tyler Graphics Ltd., A Bower in the Arsacides
Frank Stella; Tyler Graphics Ltd., A Bower in the Arsacides
Frank Stella , Tyler Graphics Ltd.
A Bower in the Arsacides
1993
Frank Stella, artist
1936–2024
Tyler Graphics Ltd., publisher
active 1974–2000
A Bower in the Arsacides, 1993
Portfolio/Series title: Moby Dick Deckle Edges
Where object was made: United States
Material/technique: lithograph; relief; etching; aquatint; wove paper; collagraph
Dimensions:
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 1447 x 1221 mm
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 56 15/16 x 48 1/16 in
Credit line: Museum purchase: Lucy Shaw Schultz Fund
Accession number: 1994.0017
Not on display
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Images

Label texts

Exhibition Label:
"Dreams and Portals," Jun-2008, Kris Ercums and Susan Earle
Intro Label:
This summer display features selections from the Spencer’s permanent collection, including works that may evoke dreams and ideas of place, near and far.

The works range in media from painting and watercolor to collage, textile, and video. Some may transport you to other places, such as the lyrical "Blue Door (La Porte Bleue)" by French artist Pierre Lesieur. Reflecting the artist’s travels to North Africa, this painting evokes the sea or an open door in a way that suggests a dream, or a portal.

Many works feature abstract imagery, at times suggestive of dreams, or passages to other landscapes, be they of the mind or actual places. Others combine abstraction and figuration, like the William T. Wiley drawing
"Feeding Time." Others teeter between realism and abstraction, such as "Foam Chrome II" by Gary Pruner.

A portal can be defined as a door or gate or entrance, especially a grand or imposing one. Paintings themselves are like portals. They allow us to enter worlds and spaces like nothing else can.

Let your mind wander and see what dreams you might recall, or what new perspectives you might gain.

Exhibitions

Art Into Art: Inspired Responses
2006–2007
Dreams and Portals
Susan Earle, curator
Kris Ercums, curator
2008
Unpainted to the Last: Moby-Dick and American Art
Elizabeth Schultz, curator
1995
Unpainted to the Last: Moby-Dick and American Art, 1940-1990
Elizabeth Schultz, curator
1995
Unpainted to the Last: Moby-Dick and American Art, 1940-1990
Elizabeth Schultz, curator
1996

Resources

Audio

Didactic – Art Minute
Didactic – Art Minute
Episode 150 Jul-2008 I’m David Cateforis with another Art Minute from the Spencer Museum of Art. Herman Melville’s 1851 novel, Moby Dick, has inspired countless American artists, from book illustrators to the makers of autonomous artworks that transcend the text. Among the latter is Frank Stella, whose extensive Moby Dick series of paintings, sculptures, and prints includes the large 1993 print in the Spencer collection, A Bower in the Arsacides. Its title comes from a chapter in Moby Dick in which the narrator Ishmael tells of his visit to an island in the Arsacides in the Pacific, where he marvels at the skeleton of a sperm whale transformed into a temple. Stella’s brightly colorful and complex composition features abstracted images from Melville’s text, including “the great, white, worshipped skeleton,” “lordly palms,” “a weaver’s loom,” small bubbles made by Ahab’s “sinking pipe,” and “artificial smoke ascending.” This technically dazzling print combines lithography, etching, aquatint, relief and collograph, executed with great precision by Stella in collaboration with master printmakers at Tyler Graphics Limited. From the Spencer Museum of Art, I’m David Cateforis.