Flattened Intensities: An Empirically Informed Assessment of Frank Stella's Fluorescent Paintings from the Sixties

This dissertation investigates the role and visual effects of daylight fluorescent (DayGlo) paints in Frank Stella's works of the sixties. In the first part of the dissertation, a theoretical framework is developed through a step-by-step extraction of the logic of the Modernist theories of Clement Greenberg, Frank Stella, and Michael Fried. This framework helps to position Stella's intentions and decisions, starting from the Black Paintings, which eventually lead him to the use of fluorescent paints. The second half of the first part is devoted to Stella's fluorescent turn. Here, Stella's understanding of self-referentiality, developed throughout the black and metallic series, is applied to the fluorescent series that were made between 1964 and 1970 (Moroccan, Persian, Irregular Polygons, and Protractor series). Part two consists of empirical studies related to Stella's DayGlo works. In the first chapters, an introduction to the physics and chemical composition of daylight fluorescent pigments is given. In addition, a multi-modal approach for the characterization of daylight fluorescent pigments has been developed in collaboration with prof. Geert Van der Snickt and his team (University of Antwerp). This is followed by a phenomenological study of the specific visual aspects (and their relation to Stella's concepts of 'actuality,' 'anti-illusionism,' 'transparency,' 'arbitrariness' and 'directness') of the different series that contain fluorescent colors. In the penultimate chapter, a number of claims that were central to Stella's Modernist approach have been tested for their validity when applied to his fluorescent works. For this, three studies were conducted in collaboration with prof. Johan Wagemans and his team (KU Leuven). In the first study, the effect of fluorescent colors on the experience of color depth was tested using color sets adapted from four Irregular Polygons paintings. The study showed that the fluorescent colors, unlike their conventional variants, were experienced as strongly protruding, which is inconsistent with the claims found in art criticism that these works are anti-illusionistic. In the second experiment, we tested whether fluorescent colors amplify the instantaneous-effect, by testing four color combinations and patterns based on Stella's Moroccan Paintings. In order to speak of Modernist, anti-illusionist paintings, they had to be immediately capturable. It turns out that some fluorescent color combinations contribute to, while others diminish the speed at which these structures can be perceived. Therefore, Stella's assumptions are not valid for the whole series, but only for some of the works. The last study investigated how fluorescent colors are experienced when observing them in real paintings, using eye-tracking methods and questionnaires. This study was organized together with the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, where it also took place. For the occasion, the exhibition Tracking Frank Stella was curated, which consisted of three Stella paintings (Tuxedo Park Junction (1960), Effingham I (1967), and a painted replica of Hiraqla Variation II (1968)) and life-size non-fluorescent printed copies that were shown next to each other. The study revealed that different participants experienced significant differences when observing the same works, which undermines Stella's intended uniformity of experience. In the last chapter, it is shown how the interdisciplinary approach of this research consists in a new art historical methodology, which can be called 'empirically informed art history.' This new methodology helps to adjudicate debates, illustrate (visual) complexities, and reveal biases and individual differences in the appreciation of works of art in a way that 'traditional' art historical methods cannot.

Publication year:2020

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