Frank Stella (born 1936), American painter, was one of the most dominant and influential figures in abstract painting during the 1960s through the 1990s.

Frank Stella was born in Malden, Massachusetts, on May 12, 1936. He attended the Phillips Academy in Andover (1950-1954), where he studied painting with Patrick Morgan. Stella graduated from Princeton University with a bachelor of arts degree in history in 1958. Because Princeton did not offer a degree in studio art, his development during these years was largely the result of self-teaching. However, he received important advice and encouragement from the painter Stephen Greene and the art historian William Seitz, both then teaching at Princeton.

Stella's first important group show was the Museum of Modern Art's "Sixteen Americans," held in 1959; this exhibition established him as one of the most radical young artists working in the United States. He instantly gained notoriety for his Black Paintings, a series of...