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Hooloomooloo IV by Frank Stella
Photo CreditPhotograph by Steven Sloman, New York
Hooloomooloo IV
Photo CreditPhotograph by Steven Sloman, New York

Hooloomooloo IV

Year1994-2005
Classification painting
Medium acrylic on canvas
Dimensions16 ft. x 16 ft. 6 in. (4.88 x 5.03 m)
Credits Commissioned through the Art in Architecture Program
Fine Arts Collection
U.S. General Services Administration
  • The swirling patterns of color and energy in Frank Stella’s painting Hooloomooloo IV contrast with the solid volumes and stark white surfaces of the surrounding architecture, and compliment the activities and achievements that take place in the Alfonse M. D’Amato U.S. Courthouse and Federal Building.  Situated in the main lobby of the courthouse, the painting conveys a sense of hyperbolic speed and complex space through a vortex of overlapping forms and shapes.  The title of Stella's painting, which was once part of a larger four-part artwork, alludes to the name of an imaginary island from Herman Melville’s 1849 novel Mardi: and A Voyage Thither.