In his 1962 review of Stella’s solo exhibition at Leo Castelli Gallery, Donald Judd wrote, “Criticism is pretty much after the fact. Frank Stella’s paintings are one of the recent facts. They show the extent of what can be done now. The further coherence supersedes older forms.”¹

This drawing is a study for a larger shaped-canvas painting with the same title, part of Stella’s Purple Series. Stella named each work in this series of nine unique geometric shapes after an individual in the New York art world, including Carl Andre, Henry Geldzahler, Hollis Frampton, Ileana Sonnabend, and Leo Castelli, Stella’s and Judd’s longtime dealer. In 1972, Stella created a series of lithographs called the Purple Series using the same forms.

Judd first exhibited with Frank Stella in Contemporary American Group Show [New Work: Part III] (May–June 15, 1963) at Green Gallery, New York.

¹ Donald Judd, “In the Galleries” (September 1962), in Donald Judd: Complete Writings 1959–1975 (1975; repr., New York: Judd Foundation, 2015), 57.