Prinz Friedrich von Homburg, Ein Schauspiel, 3X

The National Art Gallery, Washington, DC, the USA.

Stainless steel, aluminum, dyed fiberglass, carbon fiber.

After completing the picturesque reliefs, the details of which protruded far enough from the surface of the canvases, Frank Stella began to create freestanding sculptural compositions. One of the first was “Prinz Friedrich” named after the play about love and war written by 18th-century German playwright Heinrich von Kleist. Spiral twisted, chaotic lines of sculpture continue the visual vocabulary of the artist’s pictorial reliefs. At the same time, thin supports, invisible from afar, on which it is installed, create a feeling of soaring in the air. The author himself spoke of the genre of sculpture that it is “the same painting, only carved in volume and installed in front of everyone”. The advantage of the statue is that it is intended for circular inspection and assumes different impressions from different angles.