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Top 20 Frank Stella Quotes (2025 Update)

Frank Stella Quote: “You see what you know!”

1. “You see what you know!”

— Frank Stella

Frank Stella Quote: “A sculpture is just a painting cut out and stood up somewhere.”

2. “A sculpture is just a painting cut out and stood up somewhere.”

— Frank Stella

Frank Stella Quote: “I don’t like to say I have given my life to art. I prefer to say art has given me my life.”

3. “I don’t like to say I have given my life to art. I prefer to say art has given me my life.”

— Frank Stella

Frank Stella Quote: “The aim of art is to create space.”

4. “The aim of art is to create space.”

— Frank Stella

Frank Stella Quote: “But, after all, the aim of art is to create space – space that is not compromised by decoration or illustration, space within which the subjects of painting can live.”

5. “But, after all, the aim of art is to create space – space that is not compromised by decoration or illustration, space within which the subjects of painting can live.”

— Frank Stella

Frank Stella Quote: “Up until 35 I had a slightly skewed world view. I honestly believed everybody in the world wanted to make abstract paintings, and people only became lawyers and doctors and brokers and things because they couldn’t make abstract paintings.”

6. “Up until 35 I had a slightly skewed world view. I honestly believed everybody in the world wanted to make abstract paintings, and people only became lawyers and doctors and brokers and things because they couldn’t make abstract paintings.”

— Frank Stella

Frank Stella Quote: “No art is any good unless you can feel how it’s put together. By and large it’s the eye, the hand and if it’s any good, you feel the body. Most of the best stuff seems to be a complete gesture, the totality of the artist’s body; you can really lean on it.”

7. “No art is any good unless you can feel how it’s put together. By and large it’s the eye, the hand and if it’s any good, you feel the body. Most of the best stuff seems to be a complete gesture, the totality of the artist’s body; you can really lean on it.”

— Frank Stella

Frank Stella Quote: “Once I really started to understand Frank Stella’s work and follow it, there’s a certain type of invention and playfulness and extreme rigor with which he kept going forward.”

8. “Once I really started to understand Frank Stella’s work and follow it, there’s a certain type of invention and playfulness and extreme rigor with which he kept going forward.”

— Frank Stella

Frank Stella Quote: “I want to make exalted art. A successful image has pictorial lift. I am looking for whatever is up there.”

9. “I want to make exalted art. A successful image has pictorial lift. I am looking for whatever is up there.”

— Frank Stella

Frank Stella Quote: “Architecture can’t fully represent the chaos and turmoil that are part of the human personality, but you need to put some of that turmoil into the architecture, or it isn’t real.”

10. “Architecture can’t fully represent the chaos and turmoil that are part of the human personality, but you need to put some of that turmoil into the architecture, or it isn’t real.”

— Frank Stella

Frank Stella Quote: “Making art is complicated because the categories are always changing. You just have to make your own art, and whatever categories it falls into will come later.”

11. “Making art is complicated because the categories are always changing. You just have to make your own art, and whatever categories it falls into will come later.”

— Frank Stella

Frank Stella Quote: “What you see is what you see.”

12. “What you see is what you see.”

— Frank Stella

Frank Stella Quote: “The one thing I learned is not to say anything about my own paintings. Keep my mouth shut. You’ll never stop hearing what you said. It will come back to you again and again, people will always tell you about it. Even if you were the source of what’s wrong with it.”

13. “The one thing I learned is not to say anything about my own paintings. Keep my mouth shut. You’ll never stop hearing what you said. It will come back to you again and again, people will always tell you about it. Even if you were the source of what’s wrong with it.”

— Frank Stella

Frank Stella Quote: “When I’m painting the picture, I’m really painting a picture. I may have a flat-footed technique, or something like that, but still, to me, the thrill, or the meat of the thing, is the actual painting. I don’t get any thrill out of laying it out.”

14. “When I’m painting the picture, I’m really painting a picture. I may have a flat-footed technique, or something like that, but still, to me, the thrill, or the meat of the thing, is the actual painting. I don’t get any thrill out of laying it out.”

— Frank Stella

Frank Stella Quote: “Abstract paintings must be as real as those created by the 16th century Italians.”

15. “Abstract paintings must be as real as those created by the 16th century Italians.”

— Frank Stella

Frank Stella Quote: “Any artist can’t get away from the way the world works, which is that it wants to know what you did, and you’re only interested in what you’re doing right now.”

16. “Any artist can’t get away from the way the world works, which is that it wants to know what you did, and you’re only interested in what you’re doing right now.”

— Frank Stella

Frank Stella Quote: “I get cranky real easily. So the honor of it and the wonder of it all and everything has a hard time overcoming the petty annoyances; I mean, that’s simply the reality of being alive, I guess.”

17. “I get cranky real easily. So the honor of it and the wonder of it all and everything has a hard time overcoming the petty annoyances; I mean, that’s simply the reality of being alive, I guess.”

— Frank Stella

Frank Stella Quote: “One learns about painting by looking at and imitating other painters.”

18. “One learns about painting by looking at and imitating other painters.”

— Frank Stella

Frank Stella Quote: “There’s a lot of difference between being well known and being notorious and the black paintings didn’t make me well known – they made me notorious.”

19. “There’s a lot of difference between being well known and being notorious and the black paintings didn’t make me well known – they made me notorious.”

— Frank Stella

Frank Stella Quote: “I was worried in the ’80s that the best abstract painting had become obsessed with materiality, and painterly gestures and materiality were up against the wall.”

20. “I was worried in the ’80s that the best abstract painting had become obsessed with materiality, and painterly gestures and materiality were up against the wall.”

— Frank Stella

Frank Stella Quote: “It’s hard to say that my twenties were the most miserable time in my life or that my first wife drove me crazy or that I hated the job that I had. You can say all of those things. But for the most part, people manage to have a good time when they’re that age.”

21. “It’s hard to say that my twenties were the most miserable time in my life or that my first wife drove me crazy or that I hated the job that I had. You can say all of those things. But for the most part, people manage to have a good time when they’re that age.”

— Frank Stella

Frank Stella Quote: “I don’t like a lot of the stuff that goes on in the art world, but it’s hard to be old and like what goes on around you.”

22. “I don’t like a lot of the stuff that goes on in the art world, but it’s hard to be old and like what goes on around you.”

— Frank Stella

Frank Stella Quote: “I think for a lot of artists, if you’re lucky enough to have a kind of career, especially toward the end, you start to think about what the whole ensemble looks like. It’s the whole that counts. The parts are given, but you don’t know how the whole thing’s going to look when it’s all put together.”

23. “I think for a lot of artists, if you’re lucky enough to have a kind of career, especially toward the end, you start to think about what the whole ensemble looks like. It’s the whole that counts. The parts are given, but you don’t know how the whole thing’s going to look when it’s all put together.”

— Frank Stella

Frank Stella Quote: “One learns about painting by looking at and imitating other painters. I can’t stress enough how important it is, if you are interested at all in painting, to look and to look a great deal at painting. There is no other way to find out about painting.”

24. “One learns about painting by looking at and imitating other painters. I can’t stress enough how important it is, if you are interested at all in painting, to look and to look a great deal at painting. There is no other way to find out about painting.”

— Frank Stella

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