The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 20, 2025

Rectangular painting depicting radiating squares alternating between solid greys and muted colors, each separated by fine white outlines. The central square is maroon, the next white, then dark blue, then the first of progressively darker greys that alternated with medium-dark red, then orange, then yellow.

Gray Scramble (Single), VIII

1968

Frank Stella

(American, 1936–2024)
America
synthetic polymer paint on canvas
Framed: 175.2 x 175.2 x 7.5 cm (69 x 69 x 2 15/16 in.); Unframed: 175.2 x 175.2 cm (69 x 69 in.)
Gift of David and Helen Kangesser 2003.355
© Frank Stella / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Location: 224A Contemporary Corridor

Did You Know?

"Scramble" refers to the alternating, sometimes disorienting organization of the colored squares that darken in hue toward the center.

Description

Stella’s early paintings represent his reaction against the seemingly loose, gestural brushstroke associated with Abstract Expressionism. In Gray Scramble (Single), VIII, Stella combines bands of sequential values and of differing colors. In contrast to the depth created by the alternating light and dark bands of color, the uniformity of the paint surface emphasizes the two-dimensionality of the canvas. Using commercial paint and a house-painter’s brush, Stella carefully crafted his works to create an immediate visual impression of simplicity and monumentality. The strict geometry and crisp edges of the painted bands illustrate Stella’s desire for precision, whereas the resulting symmetry contributes to an “all-over” quality reminiscent of Jackson Pollock’s drip paintings.
  • Sims, Lowery Stokes, Cleveland Museum of Art, and Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland. The Persistence of Geometry : Form, Content, and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2006. Reproduced: p. 5, 76, no. 108; mentioned: p.122 ingallslibrary.on.worldcat.org
    Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 118
  • Contemporary Installation. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer).
    The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (MOCA), Cleveland, OH (June 9-August 20, 2006).
    MOCA Cleveland (6/9/2006 - 8/20/2006): "The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art", no. 108, p. 122, color repr. p. 5 & p. 76.
  • {{cite web|title=Gray Scramble (Single), VIII|url=false|author=Frank Stella|year=1968|access-date=20 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2003.355