Odelsk 3, 1971

Polish Village Series 1970 -1974

Featured Image: “Odelsk 3”, 1971 , 7.5 ft x 11ft

Stella took some turns in this series by moving away from the flat surface to the third dimension. He is consistent with his hard edges, geometric shapes, pop of color and visual flatness, yet its hard to deny this series is very sculpture-like. Made with primarily acrylic paint and cloth on constructed plywood, the use of industrial materials was new to his art. The inspiration to this series all began when Stella stumbled upon pictures of Polish synagogues that were destroyed during the Nazi occupation of Poland in World War 2. He was struck by the architecture of the buildings, and his intent for the series was not to create a memorial, but he was accepting a creative challenge at how to address the construction of these buildings. There are 130 large scale paintings in total in this series