Jarmolince II

One of the preeminent Minimalist artists, Stella was unique among his peers for embracing decoration. This work from his Polish Villages series is based on the elaborate carpentry of wooden synagogues destroyed by the Nazis in World War II. Stella learned about these buildings from a 1959 book written by Warsaw-based Jewish architects. He was drawn to this historical inversion, stating, “The trace of the destruction of these synagogues was from Berlin to Warsaw to Moscow. The development of abstraction in the 20th century traces that same path, from Moscow to Warsaw to Berlin and back.”