In one understanding, Stella’s cone-sanctuary has historic connections: the Orthodox Church’s placing the Nativity in a cave and the Gospel texts’ account of the rock-cut tomb of Christ’s burial, an idea that may be found in Baroque pictures of pilgrimage churches, with services depicted within the cave. Regarding this, Stella has a continuing interest in the ritual functions of prehistoric cave paintings that began when he had a rare opportunity to see the Lascaux cave with his wife, Harriet, in 1999.

The great range and high accomplishments of Stella’s work (paintings, sculpture and architecture) and his clear writings on art and artists come from what we might term a “generosity from conviction”: The artist has continually engaged in finding and establishing how abstract art can articulate meaning. His works can be compared, in this sense, with both the complexities of Braque’s late, grand “Studios” and the sharp clarities of Matisse’s paper “cut-outs,” and especially their transformation in Matisse’s own architectural creation, the Chapelle du Rosaire in Vence, France. Matisse described this as “the achievement of an entire life’s work … difficult, sincere effort.” So, too, is Stella’s art—and with more to come.

E.A. Carmean Jr. is preparing a study of the religious projects of eight major modern artists, including Frank Stella. He contributed to the Met’s 2007 “Frank Stella: Painting into Architecture” exhibition.