Mihapol I

The Museum of Modern Art, Los Angeles, the USA.

Mixed media on canvas.

Having received a book with photographs “Wooden Synagogues” as a gift from a friend, Stella got inspired by the geometric beauty and original simplicity of these buildings. He created a series of collages, wooden and paper reliefs, which he called the “Polish Village”. By the time the works were created, synagogues from photographs had long been destroyed by the Nazis, and the artist gave each painting the name of the destroyed villages and burnt temples. The sharp geometric shapes and colour scheme of this work show the influence of Soviet Constructivism, which Frank Stella always admired.