On Tuesday, I visited the Anders Wahlstedt Fine Art gallery which displayed selected prints from Frank Stella’s Moby Dick series. From what I saw on display, I could deduce that there were a few central themes that were prevalent in all the works, as well as some rather striking differences between the works that were displayed. For instance, all the works were examples of abstract art, that is that it is next to impossible to tell what exactly is being displayed in the work and what message the artist wished to convey. On the other hand, although all the works were abstract art, half of the works had a lot of vibrant colors while the others were very drearily colored, one being completely black and white. Although I do not know for sure, my interpretation of this starch contrast in the color scheme of the prints may have something to do with the artist’s- Frank Stella’s- inspiration for this series of works.

In fact, Frank Stella was inspired by American author, Herman Melville’s, 1851 novel Moby Dick, as the name of the series suggests. This novel tells the story of a vengeful sea captain named Ahab who lost half of his leg after his ship was attacked by a huge white whale. Following this traumatic experience, Captain Ahab becomes obsessed with finding the whale. He was willing to risk his life and the lives of his crew in his reckless mission to exact revenge upon a force of nature, a mistake that came at the cost of the lives of his crew and ultimately his own life.

In my view, Frank Stella wished to express the different themes of the novel through the color schemes of his works. For instance, in the prints that have a more vibrant color scheme, the artist may be trying to portray the awesome power of Moby Dick and nature in general, a power that cannot be defeated no matter the motivation or the desire. The more drearily ordained works, on the other hand, may represent the repercussions and the effects of what happens when a person tries to upend the laws of nature, so to speak, as seen by what happened when Captain Ahab tried to hunt down a direct extension of nature’s power, Moby Dick. To conclude on a more cheery note, I will say that in the video shown to us, it showed the enormous amount of work and effort put into each print, which makes each print that much more impressive to examine and analyze, regardless of the meanings behind them.