Multicolored Squares I, based on six paintings from Concentric Squares and Mitered Mazes Series, 1962-63, was the first lithographic series in which Frank Stella explored the effects of colour within the compositional device of the square. Divided between four plates printed in shades of primary colour, and two plates printed in the greyscale, Stella created complex juxtapositions which simultaneously clash and harmonize. There is also a tension between the soft, hand-drawn marks of the tusche crayon, used for the bands of vivid tone, and the rigidity of the underlying geometric grid.

Beneath it's cool abstraction, Stella’s enigmatic titles for the individual prints hint at a more politically engaged reading, referencing: the apartheid era Cato Manor riots and Sharpeville massacre in South Africa; the Spanish conquest of the Yucatan in the 16th Century with Gran Cairo and Cipango; and the disreputable commercial antics of turn-of-the-century Louisiana Lottery Co. and Honduras Lottery Co.

The printers of this edition were Ernest Donagh and Chris Betambeau, at Cook, Hammond and Kell Lithographers, London. Ernest Donagh (1941-2007) studied at Staffordshire Art School and Goldsmiths, and from 1967-1977 was a fine art lithographer for Editions Alecto and Petersburg Press. Ernie, as he was known, was a specialist in stone lithography and collaborated with many important artists, including David Hockney (see also lot 151), Jim Dine, Frank Stella and Richard Hamilton. While examples of this series are almost always compromised, and especially prone to attenuation from exposure to light, Ernie's printer's proof set has remained in archival conditions since it was printed, and is in extraordinary, fresh condition.