Ifafa I

Stella made his first prints in 1967, at the Gemini Graphic Editions Limited workshop founded by Ken Tyler in Los Angeles in 1965. Tyler, the workshop director at Tamarind in 1964-65, has been a constant collaborator with Stella, whose comments about Tyler in 1981 succinctly describe a typical relationship between artists and printers: He taught me everything I know about printmaking. He probably still does. He knows so much. He tells me how it's done. I say 'Can we do it this way?' And he sees if it can be done, or approximates it, or has a better idea. We keep working away at it. I don't know enough to get it myself. Stella's V Series comprises eight lithographs based on the stripe paintings of the Notched-V Series (1964-65). The brilliant metallic colors and slick surface Stella employed here exemplify the technical excellence for which Tyler has always been known.