By Jove that Juve: Stella, Andre, and Frampton at Phillips Academy

That, arguably, THE painter, THE sculptor, and THE filmmaker of their generation (though Frampton is much less well known, and these claims may no longer hold), all attended the same preparatory school at the same time is, to say the least, remarkable. It is a coincidence that begs questions: what was being taught to, who was teaching, and what was being learned by, the young Frank Stella, Carl Andre, and Hollis Frampton at Phillips Academy in the early 1950s? By examining the archives at the prestigious school, which include runs of the student art magazine The Mirror (which contains reproductions of paintings by Frampton, Andre, and Stella [e.g. this last’s When Snakes Hiss They Kiss (1954)]), and to a lesser extent its literary magazine, THE, as well as the school’s newspaper (which contains Frampton’s review of a painting show at the Addison Gallery of American Art), among other records and oral histories, this paper will place a northeastern boarding school and its faculty (Patrick and Maud Morgan) in orbit around another "graduating class" and "curriculum": Dorothy Miller’s set of contemporaneous Americans exhibits at MoMA (1942-63). The paper seeks to understand a developing exhibition and educational scene that fostered three young artists whose presence in New York City on the cusp of the 1960s contributed to major shifts in American art.