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This freestanding, mostly white and silver metal sculpture stands as tall as five of the six stories of windows in the building behind it in this photograph. The sculpture is made up of swirling white forms, like cut and curled paper, wrapped around and among silver rods, struts, and rigging-like cables. Four silver legs gather in a narrow spot on the grassy ground and angle up and outward around the collection of central, white forms. The white sheets are cut into zigzagging lines and straight slits, and then curl around themselves. Other material is nestled in among the white sheets and metal bars. This includes a material mottled with pale pink and dark gray, built up like clay rolled into coils and stacked near the center. A star-like, silver form flares out at the upper right. Taut cables anchor the piece to the ground and connect the legs of the framework. The piece sits on green grass before a pale peach stone building with reflective blue-gray windows.

Frank Stella

Prinz Friedrich von Homburg, Ein Schauspiel, 3X, 1998-2001

East Building, Ground Level — Entrance Terrace

Medium

stainless steel, aluminum, painted fiberglass, and carbon fiber

Dimensions

overall: 944.9 x 1188.7 x 1036.3 cm (372 x 468 x 408 in.) gross weight: 20000 lb.

Credit Line

Gift of The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation

Accession Number

2001.90.1

Artists / Makers

Frank Stella (sculptor) American, 1936 - 2024

Image Use

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Provenance

Commissioned from the artist by NGA; purchased 2 August 2001.

Associated Names

Stella, Frank

Bibliography

2000: Landi, Ann. “Beach Hats and Band Shells.” Art News 99, no. 6 (June 2000): 130.

2001: Fields, Suzanne. “Stella’s Artistic Spirit Triumphs Over the Taliban.” Times Herald Record [Middleton, NY] (December 18, 2001): syndicated column, Washington Times.

2001: Gopnik, Blake. “Frank Stella on Shaping an Aesthetic” [Interview with the artist]. Washington Post (December 16, 2001).

2001: Gopnik, Blake. “Frank Stella’s Twisted Prince of a Sculpture.” Washington Post (December 11, 2001): C-1, C-8, repro., color repro.

2001: Hosefros, Paul. “It May Look Like a Big Bunch of Metal, But There’s a Prince in There Somewhere.” New York Times (September 1, 2001): repro.

2001: Lewis, Jo Ann. “Stella Sculpture to Land at National Gallery.” Washington Post (May 18, 2001): C1, C6, color repro.

2001: Müller, Ulrich and Ana-Maria Ehrmann-Schinlbeck. Heinrich von Kleist by Frank Stella: Werkverzeichnis der Heinrich von Kleist-Serie. (Minerva, Jenaer Schriften zur Kunstgeschichte, 11.) Köln, 2001: 192-193, color repro.

2001: Puenta, Maria. “Sculpture Swoops into D.C.” USA Today (December 12, 2001).

2001: Russell, John. “Frank Stella Builds a Landmark Out of Romanticism and Steel: A Monumental Sculpture Is Headed for Washington.” New York Times (May 17, 2001): E1, color repro. (Correction issued May 22, 2001.)

2001: Shaw-Eagle, Joanna. “Spectacular ‘Prince’ Rises.” Washington Times (October 27, 2001): color repro.

2001: Van Gelder, Lawrence. “Stella Sculpture to Get Its Own Washington Space.” New York Times (May 23, 2001).

2001: Vogel, Carol. “Frank Stella’s Sculpture” (Inside Art). New York Times (December 14, 2001).

2002: Gopnik, Blake. “’Unititled’: Art by No Other Name.” Washington Post (January 4, 2002): C7, column 3, color repro.

2002: Smith, Roberta. “Frank Stella Pops Up All Over.” New York Times (January 8, 2002): AR-1, repro.

2003: Cohen, Jean Lawlor. “3-D Thrills: Looking for Big-Time Contemporary Sculpture in All the Right Places.” Where Washington (June 2003): 12, 13, color repro.

2004: Ottmann, Klaus. “Frank Stella’s Prince of Ambiguity.” Sculpture 23, no. 5 (June 2004): 34-39, color repros.

2011: Ottmann, Klaus. “A Conversation with Frank Stella: Action and Spatial Engagement.” Sculpture 30, no. 3 (April 2011): 26-27, 29, color repro.

2013: Cigola, Francesca. Art Parks: A Tour of America’s Sculpture Parks and Gardens. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2013: 101.