Frank Stella (1936–2024) was a painter, printmaker and sculptor whose experiments with geometry, color and form transformed postwar abstraction. Born in Malden, Massachusetts, Stella studied history and painting at Princeton University before moving to New York in 1958. He gained immediate attention for his Black Paintings, in which precisely arranged bands of black enamel alternated with narrow lines of exposed canvas. Rejecting the expressive gestures of Abstract Expressionism, these works emphasized the painting as a physical object and anticipated the development of Minimalism. During the 1960s, Stella introduced shaped canvases and increasingly vibrant color, culminating in his monumental Protractor paintings, composed of sweeping arcs and geometric patterns. In subsequent decades, his work became increasingly sculptural and eventually developed into freestanding sculpture. Throughout his career, Stella continually expanded his definition of painting, moving from the radical simplicity of his early work toward increasingly complex explorations of color, material and three-dimensional space.