Artwork of the Day
Every day collectors at Artland share variety of artworks from around the world, both from their personal collections as well as pieces they’ve seen in a recent gallery opening or got inspired by on the web.
In this feature, we will be presenting you with the highlight of the day, the most interesting, inspiring or moving piece of art posted in the app in the last days together with name of the collector who shared it. Check the collector’s profile in the app to see their entire collection!
Information
The presented artwork, Felsztyn IV from 1971 comes from a series ‘Polish Villages’. In 1970 Stella encountered the visual culture of Polish Jews by means of Maria and Kazimierz Piechotka’s book Wooden Synagogues (1959). The discourse arose between American abstract art and a visual identity of Polish Jews that took place in the pre-digital era, at a time when the free flow of ideas was significantly hindered by barriers resulting from different political systems (phaidon.com).
Angular, graphic, and often brightly colored, the works in Stella’s Polish Village series were inspired by the distinct architecture of wooden Polish synagogues built in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries and destroyed by the Nazis during World War II. The works are all named after ruined synagogues and villages noted in this book. Using certain arrangements of color and variations in material, Stella is able to create the illusion of three-dimensions as well as works that have a presence in space. Formally, these works investigate Cubist and Russian Constructivist themes (arthaps.com).
Frank Stella
Felsztyn IV | 1971
Media | Felt and acrylic on canvas mounted on cardboard on wood, 106 x 95 inches (269.2 x 241.3 cm)
Sources: Artwork courtesy of the Artist & Charles Riva.