Though his early work allied him with
the emerging minimalist approach, Stella's style has evolved to become more complex and dynamic over the years as he has continued his investigation into the nature of abstract painting.
«By the mid - and late - 1970s,» wrote the curator Richard Marshall in his essay for the exhibition «American Art Since 1970» at the Whitney Museum, «painting had moved further away from the confines of the
Minimalist approach — even from a negative reaction to it — and the artists [Jennifer Bartlett, Vija Celmins, Lois Lane, Neil Jenney, Bill Jensen and Elizabeth Murray] inaugurated new ways to treat subject matter and meaning -LSB-...] there
emerged a move against an insular, elitist attitude towards art and what it is, should be, or must be -LSB-...] artists began to look at more diverse visual repertory: commercial art, advertising, fashion, television and movies, popular culture, the decorative arts, rugs, religion, ancient artifacts, and Middle Eastern Cultures.»