Squid, from The Waves Series

Over a period of 12 years, from 1985 to 1997, Frank Stella produced a major series of works in various media that are linked to Herman Melville's monumental novel 'Moby-Dick'. The printed component of this project consists in four different series: The Waves, Moby Dick Engravings, Moby Dick Domes and Moby Dick Deckle Edges.

The Waves incorporates all three major motifs of the Moby Dick Project: 1) the first appearance of the wave-whale shape, the most significant shape in the Moby Dick series as a whole 2) a variety of gutter shapes that the artist would develop during the history of the project and 3) the lattice shape.