Frank Stella’s Personal Collection of Bold, Geometric Textiles Set to Go on Display

The brightly colored geometric artworks of Frank Stella star in many discerning collectors’s personal hoards, however, the late artist was a collector himself, drawn to the striking shapes and electric colors of Navajo rugs and textiles. Inside his Richard Meier-designed home in New York’s West Village neighborhood, Stella covered walls and layered underfoot chromatic works with arresting patterns of strong linear shapes.

“When I learned that Frank Stella collected Diné textiles, I wasn’t really surprised,” says Dr. Jill Ahlberg Yohe, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Cafesjian Art Trust Museum and a leading scholar of Navajo weaving. “Many of our most important 20th-century artists developed a deep fondness and appreciation of Navajo weaving… Stella, along with Donald Judd, Jasper Johns, and Andy Warhol, respected the strong, confident geometries and precision of line found in the art made by Diné women a century ago.”

Now, 40 pieces from Stella’s private collection will go on view for the first time with Peter Pap, a leading purveyor of antique rugs and historic textiles. On display May 15 through June 10 at Arader Galleries’ East 72nd Street location in New York, the installation combines a number of unique works that will be offered for sale alongside a selection of drawings on loan from the artist’s estate. Afterwards, the grouping will travel to Peter Pap’s gallery in Dublin, New Hampshire, for an exhibition that’s open June 20 through July 7.

“I think the timing feels right because we’re starting to see these works differently,” says Pap. “For a long time, they were framed more as cultural or historical objects, but when you spend time with them, you realize they belong just as much in the conversation about art—especially abstraction.”

According to Pap, what drew artists like Stella, Judd, Johns, and Warhol to these types of weavings was their unencumbered sense of freedom. “The textile with the concentric squares is my favorite,” says Pap of a circa-1900 design. “It’s very direct—it doesn’t try to do too much, and that’s exactly its strength. It really resonates with Minimalism: reducing things down to form and color, and letting that carry the experience. It’s quiet, but powerful.”

Some of the pieces command attention for their muscular patterns that evoke a sense of movement, while others appear almost hypnotic with zigzags and optical illusions. “In Textile, Banded, the pattern shifts as you look at it—you can read it in different ways,” suggests Pap. “It has a subtle movement, even within a very controlled structure. And in Late Classic or Post-Classic Textile, you see a more traditional banded format being pushed further, with small variations that start to feel surprisingly modern. That balance between order and invention is really compelling.”

“Then you have the more energetic works—the eyedazzlers,” he continues. “In Eyedazzler/Optical Textile, the design almost vibrates, pulling your eye across the surface. And Late Elaborated Serape/Eyedazzler/Germantown Variant Textile uses bold color and angular structure to create tension while still feeling completely resolved. You can really feel the confidence of the weaver in those pieces.”

Given the assortment’s stunning depth of color, powerful array of pattern, and impeccable provenance, the collection is stunning in its own right. However, shown alongside drawings by Stella it revels the true influence it had on the artist. “What’s most interesting to me is that this is clearly an artist’s collection,” says Pap. “Stella wasn’t collecting passively—he was responding to things that mattered to him visually. You see his interest in structure, repetition, and how color works across a surface. For me, that’s what makes the collection so meaningful. It gives you insight into how an artist looks, how he learns, and how he make connections. It’s very human—and very satisfying.”