Joseph Stella

Joseph Stella (1877-1946) was born in Muro Lucano, near Naples, Italy, and moved to the United States in 1896. Initially Stella studied medicine, but soon abandoned the endeavor to attend the Art Students League, where he was instructed in academic realism under William Merritt Chase. From 1900-1909, he was an illustrator, especially interested in immigrant life in New York. When he returned to Italy in 1909, Stella became associated with the Futurists, whose style greatly influenced his work. He participated in the 1913 Armory Show, exhibiting his series, "Coney Island Battle of Lights." His most well-known works depict the Brooklyn Bridge in a Cubo-Futurist style, with emphasis on dynamic lines, geometric form, and modernist energy. During the rest of his career, Stella experimented in genre and subject matter from industrial life, to Caribbean landscapes, still lifes, and religious imagery.