Joseph Stella - Visionary Nature

Edited with text by Stephanie Mayer Heydt. Edited with illustrated chronology by Audrey Lewis. Foreword by Rand Suffolk Thomas Padon. Text by Ellen E. Roberts, Karli Wurzelbacher, Ara H. Merjian. The first major monograph on the visionary nature paintings of the pioneering American modernist. Though Joseph Stella is primarily recognized for his dynamic Futurist-inspired paintings of New York, particularly of the Brooklyn Bridge, he was also compelled to express the powerful connection he felt to the natural world, a subject he pursued persistently throughout his career. Visionary Nature presents an overdue examination of the complexity and spirituality driving Stella’s nature-based works, illustrating the inspirations, sources and stylistic influences behind their creation. A prolific creator of lyrical and exuberant depictions of flowers, plants and birds, Stella saw mystery and purity in nature and explored it by combining realism and fantasy with a modernist aesthetic. By focusing o