Acquired by the present owner directly from the artist

This painting is in very good condition. Please contact the Contemporary Art department at 212-606-7254 for a condition report prepared by Terrence Mahon. This work is unframed.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

The Mitered Mazes and Concentric Squares, begun in 1962-63 are rooted in the Benjamin Moore Paintings of 1961, and demonstrate Stella's gift for expanding on his initial premises through bold variations. Six linear geometric patterns were the basis of the compositions throughout the Benjamin Moore series and Stella chose six colors for these monochromatic canvases: the primary and secondary colors of red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. Stella chose two of the compositions from the Benjamin Moore paintings for a methodical sequence of variations: the concentric bands around a central square of Island No. 10 and the maze formation of New Madrid.  Within this framework, Stella progressed beyond the monochromatic 1961 paintings with tonal variations of black, gray and white, as well as combinations of the six primary and secondary colors as in Doubled Mitered Maze. For the Mitered Maze compo🅷siti𒀰on, Stella further abstracted the design by adding diagonals from the corners of the canvas to the initial core of the maze that created the four mitered segments of the square.

In Doubled Mitered Maze, the alternating color values – as green, orange and purple are grouped within segments as opposed to the red, yellow and blue segments – introduce an element of spatial recession or progression in Stella's work that is intensified by the double panel format. As contrast to the monochromatic paintings of the late 1950s and early 1960s, color optics now activated the geometry of Stella's paintings, demonstrating the artist's ability to challenge his own previous assumptions. Beginning with the Benjamin Moore paintings, Stella had purposely chosen bolder colors that were uncharacteristic of his earlier work. ``Stella himself has spoken of the color application as recalling the spirit of a child's primer. `The reason I used color that way at first,' he says `was to fit the new work into the whole thinking of the striped pictures in general. I wanted to use a fairly formalized, programmatic kind of color.'' (William S. Rubin, Frank Stella, New York, 1970, p. 76). By increasing the complexity of this compositions and his palette in Double Mitered Maze, Stella has combined both the power of a geometri♔c pattern with the potency of vibrant color.