Frank Stella's art in the 1950s marked a period of significant experimentation and transition, laying the groundwork for his prominence in the Minimalist art movement and beyond. Born on May 12, 1936, in Malden, Massachusetts, Stella's early exposure to art came during his high school years at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. Here, he began learning to paint under abstractionist Patrick Morgan. Stella's education continued at Princeton University, where he majored in history but also took art courses, introducing him to the New York art world and influential artists like Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline, and Jasper Johns. These experiences deeply impacted his early artistic outlook​ (The Art Story)​​ (Encyclopedia Britannica)​. After graduating from Princeton in 1958, Stella moved to New York City's Lower East Side and established a studio. His work during this period signaled a departure from the Abstract Expressionism that dominated the art scene at the time. Stella's approach was characterized by a monochromatic palette and a flat application of paint, emphasizing form over content. This philosophy was encapsulated in his statement that a painting is "a flat surface with paint on it - nothing more." This perspective led to the creation of his first major series, the Black Paintings (1958-60), which featured black house paint applied to canvases with unpainted pinstripes. These works, executed when Stella was just 23 years old, garnered immediate recognition and inclusion in the Museum of Modern Art's 1959-60 exhibition "Sixteen Americans"​ (The Art Story)​. Stella's early work is often credited with pioneering Minimalism, a movement that sought to strip down art to its essential elements and reject the expressive nature of Abstract Expressionism. His Black Paintings, with their emphasis on the physical properties of painting (like the canvas surface and the paint itself) over the depiction of the external world or the artist's internal state, were a radical departure from the norm and challenged traditional concepts of art​ (The Art Story)​. The late 1950s and early 1960s were pivotal for Stella, marking the beginning of a long and varied career that would see him exploring different materials, forms, and dimensions in art. His work during this era set the stage for his later experiments with shape, color, and three-dimensionality, consistently pushing the boundaries of abstract art​ (The Art Story)​.