{"secondaryobjectnumber":null,"periodterms":[],"creditline":"Gift of Paul W. H. Hoffmann, Class of 1947, and Camille Oliver-Hoffmann","caption":"Frank Stella (1936–2024, born Malden, MA; active and died New York, NY), River of Ponds II, 1969. Acrylic on canvas; 306 × 307 × 7.9 cm. Gift of Paul W. H. Hoffmann, Class of 1947, and Camille Oliver-Hoffmann (1995-141)","cultureterms":[{"id":2038492,"culture":"American"}],"type":"artobject","dimensionsproposed":"","terms":[{"id":2038492,"term":"American","aatid":300107956,"termtype":"Culture"},{"id":2057735,"term":"yellow","aatid":300127794,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2058601,"term":"green (color)","aatid":300128438,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2061306,"term":"black","aatid":300130920,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2159868,"term":"geometric patterns","aatid":300165213,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2052977,"term":"paintings","aatid":300033618,"termtype":"Classification"},{"id":2095701,"term":"abstraction","aatid":300056508,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2053119,"term":"acrylic paintings","aatid":300181918,"termtype":"Classification"},{"id":2098351,"term":"square (geometric figure)","aatid":300055637,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2167800,"term":"acrylic paint","aatid":300015058,"termtype":"Materials"},{"id":2171344,"term":"canvas","aatid":null,"termtype":"Materials"}],"geography":[],"dimensionelements":[{"element":"Overall","type":"Height","units":"centimeters","dimension":"306.00"},{"element":"Overall","type":"Width","units":"centimeters","dimension":"307.00"},{"element":"Overall","type":"Depth","units":"centimeters","dimension":"7.93"}],"markings":null,"accessionyear":"1995-01-01","newaccession":0,"makers":[{"id":2547,"displayname":"Frank Stella","displaydate":"1936–2024, born Malden, MA; active and died New York, NY","datebegin":1936,"dateend":2024,"prefix":null,"suffix":null,"role":"Artist","displaymaker":"Frank Stella, 1936–2024, born Malden, MA; active and died New York, NY","displayorder":1}],"datecomputed":1969,"signed":null,"restrictions":"Restricted","classification":"Paintings","packages":[{"packageid":278831,"name":"10282025-DAY1-ONVIEW"},{"packageid":208216,"name":"Gallery_06-Orientation"},{"packageid":182964,"name":"Tour_LSC"},{"packageid":192740,"name":"PUAM_Transition to Modern Art"},{"packageid":197269,"name":"web_highlights -revised 2021"},{"packageid":234788,"name":"N/S Artwalk"}],"catalograisonne":null,"classifications":[{"id":2052977,"classification":"paintings"},{"id":2053119,"classification":"acrylic paintings"}],"exhibitions":[],"cultures":[],"primaryimage":["https://media.artmuseum.princeton.edu/iiif/3/collection/PUAMSTU2016_42543"],"displaytitle":"River of Ponds II","displayculture":null,"displaymaker":"Frank Stella, 1936–2024, born Malden, MA; active and died New York, NY","captionhtml":"Frank Stella (1936–2024, born Malden, MA; active and died New York, NY), <i>River of Ponds II</i>, 1969. Acrylic on canvas; 306 × 307 × 7.9 cm. Gift of Paul W. H. Hoffmann, Class of 1947, and Camille Oliver-Hoffmann (1995-141)","displaydate":"1969","medium":"Acrylic on canvas","media":[{"id":206456,"uri":"https://media.artmuseum.princeton.edu/iiif/3/collection/PUAMSTU2016_42543","isprimary":1,"rank":1,"mediatypeid":1,"mediaviewtype":"(not assigned)","restrictions":"Restricted","caption":"PUAM photo"}],"displayperiod":null,"extended_content":false,"campuscollections":"false","bibliography":[{"boilertext":"Richard H. Axsom and Leah Kolb, <em>Frank Stella Prints: A Catalogue Raisonné</em> (Portland: Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation, 2016).","citation":"Richard H. Axsom and Leah Kolb, <em>Frank Stella Prints: A Catalogue Raisonné</em> (Portland: Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation, 2016)., p. 110 (illus.)","date":2016,"id":6850,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/933507218"},{"boilertext":"<i>Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collection</i> (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007)","citation":"<i>Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collection</i> (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007), 253 (illus.)","date":2007,"id":474,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/191864564"},{"boilertext":"<i>Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collections </i>(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2013)","citation":"<i>Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collections </i>(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2013), p. 281","date":2013,"id":1994,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/865020505"},{"boilertext":"\"Acquisitions of the Art Museum 1995,\" <em>Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University</em> 56, no. 1/2 (1997): p. 36-74.","citation":"\"Acquisitions of the Art Museum 1995,\" <em>Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University</em> 56, no. 1/2 (1997): p. 36-74., p. 37, p. 40 (illus.)","date":1997,"id":3050,"uri":"https://www.jstor.org/stable/3774759"}],"nowebuse":"False","periods":[],"department":"Modern and Contemporary Art","attribute_groups":[{"id":2199324,"term":"Art Since 1945","termtype":"Collecting Area"},{"id":2199325,"term":"North American Art","termtype":"Collecting Area"}],"daterange":"A.D. 1945-present","dateend":1969,"depicted":[],"titles":[{"title":"River of Ponds II","titletype":"Primary Title","displayorder":1}],"hasimage":"true","creditlinerepro":"© Frank Stella / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York","objectnumber":"1995-141","inscribed":null,"texts":[{"texttype":"Online","textpurpose":"Handbook Entry","textentryhtml":"\r\n<EM>River of Ponds II</EM> belongs to Frank Stella’s <I>Protractor</I> series (1967–69, with additional works until 1971), characterized by monumental scale, a strident palette, and forms inspired by protractors, circular or semicircular tools for measuring angles and curves. In this case, Stella used a range of unmixed or \"pure\" acrylic paints; variations in hue and intensity create a sense of optical play. Some elements in the painting appear to project, while others seem to recede. Separated by thin pencil lines, the bands of color comprise a network of interwoven shapes, which in turn form three nested squares. As an undergraduate at Princeton University, Frank Stella took classes in studio art, but he majored in art history, completing his senior thesis on medieval Irish, Carolingian, and Ottonian art in 1958. Later that same year, he moved to New York and began the <I>Black Paintings</I> that launched his career. Stella’s innovative use of flat, ready-made colors, austere shapes, and deductive compositions exerted a formative influence on Minimalist sculpture.</P></SPAN>","remarks":null},{"texttype":"Online","textpurpose":"Gallery Label","textentryhtml":"<i>River of Ponds II</i> uses bright, unmixed acrylic paints with variations in hue and intensity to create a sense of optical play: some elements in the painting appear to project outward while others seem to recede. Such formal devices were novel for Stella, who moved to New York City in 1958, the year he graduated from Princeton University, and began his series of Black Paintings—freehand, symmetrical arrangements of black stripes in commercial enamel paint that seemed to resist subject matter and personal expression. In contrast to those early works, Stella’s <i>Protractor </i>series, to which this painting belongs, explores complex constructions of pictorial space through compositions of tightly interlocking forms at a monumental scale, opening a new chapter in the artist’s career.\n","remarks":"ORI_06_WLA.pdf - Day 1 Installation"},{"texttype":"Online","textpurpose":"Provenance","textentryhtml":"[Lawrence Rubin Gallery, New York, New York]. consigned to [Sotheby's, Nov , 9-10 ,1983. no. 68]. [David Mirvish Gallery, Toronto, Canada] sold; to Paul W.H . Hollmann and Camille Oliver-Hoffmann, Naperville, Illinois, gift; to Princeton University Art Museum, 1995.\n","remarks":"Lawrence Rubin confirmed in Sotheby's catalogue sale of 1983, to the transfer type to Mirvish gallery. AP."}],"datebegin":1969,"sortnumber":"1995  141","published_date":"2026-03-31 02:00:44.848509","objectid":6332,"dimensions":"306 × 307 × 7.9 cm (120 1/2 × 120 7/8 × 3 1/8 in.)","on_view":true}