Though Frank Stella never attended a class with Hofmann (he arrived in New York the same year the artist retired from teaching), he considers himself to be “a Hofmann student without knowing he was one.” Greatly inspired by the often-overlooked master, Stella penned an essay for American Heritage magazine, entitled “The Artist of Century,” in which he likened the effect of Hofmann's manipulation of pigment to the “force of a bomb,” thus proving that Hofmann’s influence extends well beyond the classroom.

Stella’s charmed career in the arts began in 1958 when, fresh out of Princeton University, he came to New York and created a studio out of a former jeweler's shop in the Lower East Side. He began using common house paint to create symmetrical black stripes on canvas. (continued)