Joseph Stella Italian, American, 1877-1946

An immigrant from a small southern Italian hill town, Joseph Stella arrived in New York at age nineteen enamored by the energy of the city but also ambivalent toward its oppressive power...Bridges, factories, tunnels, and towers signaled the energy and promise of the young American nation, and Stella’s modern interpretations of these subjects propelled him to international fame....A much-anticipated return to Italy in 1909 enabled Stella to seek out inspiration from the Old Masters, and he studied them voraciously. An excursion to Paris in 1911–12, however, awakened him to new styles of painting. As he explained in a 1913 essay, “The New Art,” “for the first time, I realized that there was such a thing as modern art . . . and as true and great as the old one.” He soon launched into his first efforts in abstraction. Back in New York by the end of 1912, Stella returned not only to a rousingly modern city, but also with the will to paint it. These efforts began with the artist’s newly-energized exploration of the city around him.

— Stephanie Mayer Heydt, excerpt from "Joseph Stella: Visionary Nature"