Stella, Joseph

Stella, Joseph, 1877–1946, American painter, b. Italy, emigrated to the United States in 1896. He studied at the Art Students League of New York City with William Chase and later in Italy and Paris. He is best known for his cubist- and futurist-inspired paintings executed in the years around 1920. These works strikingly expressed the vibrancy and dynamism of life in New York City. The best known of this group is "The Bridge," from the series New York Interpreted (Newark Mus., N.J.). He later turned to more mystical subjects, in paintings notable for their strong color and incisive realism.

Bibliography

See biography by I. B. Jaffe (1970).

---

Stella, Joseph (b. Giuseppe) (1877–1946) painter; born in Muro Lucano, Italy (uncle of Frank Stella). He emigrated to New York City (1896), studied at the New York School of Art under William Merritt Chase (1898), and was an illustrator for many periodicals. He traveled to Europe (1910–12), and was influenced by the Italian futurists, who stressed a dynamic and kinetic approach to art. He returned to New York (1913), traveled frequently, but settled in Queens, New York (1935). His brightly colored and energetic canvases, such as Battle of Lights, Coney Island (1913), were followed by a series of abstract panels, as in The Bridge (1926), and later, by symbolic paintings.