Joseph Stella Italian, American, 1877-1946

During World War I, Joseph Stella began attending the famed salons of Walter Arensberg in New York, where he encountered leading figures of the avant-garde, including Marcel Duchamp. Over the next six years, Stella worked closely with the Dada artist, who inspired him to experiment in a range of materials. In this portrait of his friend, Stella used silverpoint, an antiquated preindustrial technique chosen expressly for its existence prior to the devastating and destructive technology used during World War I. While other modernists—including Otto Dix, Marsden Hartley, and John Storrs—also experimented with this unusual medium, Stella was by far the most prolific.