Frank Stella
Frank Stella with Marisol. Image from Artful Cats by Mary Savig, published by the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art, 2019. Courtesy of the publishers.
“Frank Stella (b. 1936) famously broke off from abstract expressionism on a jagged line toward minimalism. The painter was motivated by the process of art, not the outcome. ‘I don’t just live for the day when I paint that one fantastic painting.…I live to paint and deal with the problems of what painting is and what it’s all about,’ explained Stella in a 1969 oral history interview for the Archives of American Art. Stella grappled with the problems of painting in his New York studio, where his docile feline Marisol carried on with the complexities of being a cat. In this photograph, they take a break from their work to enjoy each other’s company.”