The sperm whale was highly prized by whalers because not only could they harvest its meat and bones, but also a unique substance called spermaceti, a waxy oil found in an organ in the sperm whale’s massive head. Spermaceti helped fuel the Industrial Revolution as it was a source of oil for candles and was used to lubricate machinery. Frank Stella presents the sperm whale’s head protruding from the relief to allow us to see inside the skull. The relief is from the series on Moby-Dick which he worked on from 1986 to 1997.
Frank Stella (1936–2024)
The Sperm Whale’s Head (Moby Dick Series), 1989
Currently exhibited: Yes (Gallery: In Search of the White Whale)
Material: Mixed media on metall and wood
Size: 175 x 152 x 120 cm
Inv-Nr.: B_386
Image rights: VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
Keywords:
Previous owner: Collection of Meredith Long, Houston, Texas; unknown
Acquisition: Reinhard Ernst Collection, Sotheby´s, New York, 2007
Solo exhibition:
1993
‘Reliefs of Rome the Moby-Dick Series’, Meredith Long & Company, Houston, Texas
Frank Stella (b. 1936) worked from 1986 to 1997 on a series on Moby-Dick that included a total of 266 large-scale metal reliefs, a mural, collages, and prints. He named one piece of work after each of the 135 chapters of the book. He got the idea for the series when he was watching beluga whales in a large aquarium with his sons and became interested in their organic, curved shapes. His observations prompted him to read the 1851 novel Moby-Dick by Herman Melville. [1] Stella became fascinated with the story of Captain Ahab’s vengeful pursuit of the white sperm whale Moby-Dick, which propels him through the world’s oceans.
In the reliefs from this series, in which individual elements project out into the room, the artist succeeded in intertwining form and environment: the curved whale skull (The Sperm Whale’s Head, 1989), the emergence of the spindly whale body (Stubb Kills a Whale, 1988), the whale ejecting air from its blowhole, wreckage of boats and the ship Pequod, the pointed harpoon, torn nets, and graphically represented maelstroms and whirlpools (The Chase – Second Day, 1989) repeatedly lead to a transition between inside/outside, surface/space, and figuration/abstraction. The ocean as something continually changing opens up an infinite number of possible forms. By combining and superimposing them, Stella invites us to perceive more than one element of the narrative at a time. Captain Ahab’s search for the unknown white whale is a metaphor for the attempt to uncover the secrets of the world while Frank Stella is pursuing the essence of abstraction and its future. The novel prompted him to ask the question ‘whether abstraction [was] more suitable to provide the novel with a pictorial expression than any illustration, however skillful’ [2].
In this way, Frank Stella formulates the leitmotif question of the Reinhard Ernst Collection, which is answered anew in each exhibition room. A tour of the collection explores the potential of abstraction.
[1] Frank Stella: ‘The idea of the whale reminded me of Moby Dick, so I decided to go back and read the novel and the more I got into it, the more I thought it would be great to use the chapter headings of the novel for the titles of the pieces.’ Quoted in: Frank Stella unbound: literature and printmaking, ed. by Mitra Abbaspour, exh. cat. Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton (NJ) 2018, p. 74.
[2] Quoted in Heinz-Norbert Jocks, ‘Frank Stella: “I use the style that suits me at the moment.” A Conversation by Heinz-Nobert Jocks,’ in: Kunstforum international, H. 127, July – September 1994, pp. 272–289, here p. 283.
