Yares Art is pleased to present a selection of sixteen works by Larry Poons and Frank Stella at Tefaf Maastricht from June 25 - 30. Frank Stella (b. 1936) and Larry Poons (b. 1937) came to the forefront of the avant-garde art scene in the same place, and at approximately the same time—New York City in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Like-minded spirits, and longtime friends, the two went on to electrify the art world in the second half of the twentieth century with unique visions and profoundly original works. Both artists to this day continue to share a passion for speed and racing —Poons, a racer of vintage motorcycles, and Stella lauded in the sport of auto-racing for his car designs for BMW and other companies.

Abstract Expressionist Barnett Newman was a major inspiration for both artists and encouraged their early hard-edge abstractions. Over time, the two artists moved away from hard-edge compositions toward more complex and fluid abstractions. Stella experimented with industrial materials, as he created dynamic painted-metal relief constructions throughout the 1970s and ’80s. Poons, meanwhile, explored the possibilities of color with radically innovative, ever evolving painting techniques over the next five decades.

From the 1960s onwards, the two have continued to praise and support each other’s art. In 1999, Stella wrote a complimentary catalogue essay, “Mr. Natural (Larry Poons),” and Poons has frequently expressed his admiration for Stella’s achievements. Included in the show are Stella’s table top sculptures, such as "Truss with 2 Stars" (2021) and "Hallandale Beach" (2016), in which the artist melds both organic and mechanical forms. A series of small-scale paintings by Poons, such as "Telegram Blue" and "Thirty Rhymes" (both 2022), are concentrated, intense compositions echoing his large-scale paintings. 

Frank Stella was born in Malden, Massachusetts. He studied at the Phillips Academy in Andover and graduated from Princeton University in 1958. He moved to New York soon after graduation, where he caused a stir with his proto-Minimalist “Black Paintings” that were shown at the Museum of Modern Art in 1959. He went on to develop his distinctive three-dimensional hybrid painted metal reliefs, which have been exhibited throughout the world. A major touring museum retrospective of his work debuted at the Whitney Museum of American Art, October 30, 2015.

Larry Poons was born in Tokyo, Japan, to American parents. He relocated with his family to the United States at a young age, and studied music composition at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. Recognizing his greater interest for visual art, he transferred to the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where he studied painting. His career skyrocketed with the introduction of his originative "Dot Paintings" soon after he moved to New York in the early 1960s.

Both artists are included in numerous prominent public and private art collections throughout the world, including the Albright- Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo; the Art Institute of Chicago; the Cleveland Museum of Art; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Philadelphia Museum of Art; the Georges Pompidou Center, Paris the Santa Barbara Museum of Art; the Smithsonian American Art Museum,Washington, DC; the Tate Modern, London; the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Netherlands; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, among other institutions.

For further information, please contact:

info@yaresart.com

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