Frank Stella, whose sparse, geometric abstract paintings have influenced current trends in the medium for over 25 years, lectured on the use of painterly space before a sold-out Sanders Theater audience last night.

Named as this year's Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry, Stella will give five more lectures throughout the year.

The abstract painter cannot draw upon the history of art as a foundation for his painting, according to Stella. "It is assumed that the justification for present art must come from the greatness of the past, found generally in the Renaissance," said Stella.

When the artist surveys abstraction, however, the painter may be surprised how the development of abstract picturality can be found in 16th-century painting, with its utilization of form to create space, Stella explained.

"The special experience of painting should not end at the framing edges," said Stella. "The problem of the dissolution of the painting's borders is a burden modern painting was born with. The sense of space presented by a painting should be expensive; expansive enough to include the viewing."

Stella last appeared at Harvard when his works were exhibited at the Fogg Art Museum in 1965. As a Norton Professor, Stella will spend the year at Harvard, teaching and giving lectures.

Born in 1965, he lived in nearby Malden and attended Andover prep school. In 1958, he graduated from Princeton University with a history degree.

Stella received critical acclaim for his minimalist paintings after he moved to New York. Reaction from critics to his highly simplistic, geometric paintings has ranged from the New York Herald Tribune calling Stella's early work "unspeakably boring" to Robert Hughes of Time magazine referring to a 1978 exhibit as "the bravest performance abstract art has offered in years."