http://cargocollective.com Piet Mondrian Sun, 25 Jan 2009 16:27:59 +0000 http://cargocollective.com en http://cargocollective.com/mondrian/Composition-No-II http://cargocollective.com/mondrian/following/mondrian/Composition-No-II Sun, 25 Jan 2009 16:27:59 +0000 Piet Mondrian 1427 <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/200/1427/mon12.jpg" width="670" height="508" width_o="829" height_o="628" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/200/1427/mon12_o.jpg" data-mid="4960" border="0" align="left"/> After his death, Mondrian’s friend and sponsor in New York, artist Harry Holtzman, and another painter friend, Fritz Glarner, carefully documented the studio on film and in still photographs before opening it to the public for a six-week exhibition. Before dismantling the studio, Holtzman (who was also Mondrian’s heir) traced the wall compositions precisely, prepared exact portable facsimiles of the space each had occupied, and affixed to each the original surviving cut-out components. These portable Mondrian compositions have become known as "The Wall Works". They have been exhibited twice since Mondrian’s death at New York’s Museum of Modern Art (1983/1995-96), once in Soho at The Carpenter + Hochman Gallery (1984), once each at Galerie Tokoro in Tokyo, Japan. (1993), the XXII Biennial of Sao Paulo (1994), The University of Michigan (1995) and, the first time to be shown in Europe, at the Akademie der Künste (Academy of The Arts), in Berlin (February 22-April 22, 2007). After his death, Mondrian’s friend and sponsor in New York, artist Harry Holtzman, and another painter friend, Fritz Glarner, carefully documented the studio on... http://cargocollective.com/mondrian/Broadway-Boogie-Woogie http://cargocollective.com/mondrian/following/mondrian/Broadway-Boogie-Woogie Sun, 25 Jan 2009 16:19:44 +0000 Piet Mondrian 1418 <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/200/1418/mon11.jpg" width="670" height="680" width_o="670" height_o="680" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/200/1418/mon11_o.jpg" data-mid="4951" border="0" align="left"/> In 2008 the Dutch television program Andere Tijden found the only known movie footage with Mondrian. The discovery of the film footage was announced at the end of a two-year research program on the 'Victory Boogie Woogie'. The research found that the painting was in very good condition and that Mondrian painted the composition in one session. It was also found that the composition was radically changed by Mondrian shortly before his death by using small pieces of colored tape. In 2008 the Dutch television program Andere Tijden found the only known movie footage with Mondrian. The discovery of the film footage was announced at the end of... http://cargocollective.com/mondrian/Red-Yellow-Blue-and-Black http://cargocollective.com/mondrian/following/mondrian/Red-Yellow-Blue-and-Black Sun, 25 Jan 2009 16:11:34 +0000 Piet Mondrian 1417 Mondrian produced Lozenge Composition With Four Yellow Lines (1933), a simple painting that introduced what for him was a shocking innovation: thick, colored lines instead of black ones. After that one painting, this practice remained dormant in Mondrian's work until he arrived in New York, at which time he began to embrace it with abandon. <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/200/1417/mon10.jpg" width="670" height="665" width_o="670" height_o="665" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/200/1417/mon10_o.jpg" data-mid="4950" border="0" align="left"/> In some examples of this new direction, such as Composition (1938) / Place de la Concorde (1943), he appears to have taken unfinished black-line paintings from Paris and completed them in New York by adding short perpendicular lines of different colors, running between the longer black lines, or from a black line to the edge of the canvas. The newly-colored areas are thick, almost bridging the gap between lines and forms, and it is startling to see color in a Mondrian painting that is unbounded by black. Other works mix long lines of red amidst the familiar black lines, creating a new sense of depth by the addition of a colored layer on top of the black one. Mondrian produced Lozenge Composition With Four Yellow Lines (1933), a simple painting that introduced what for him was a shocking innovation: thick, colored lines... http://cargocollective.com/mondrian/Composition-with-Two-Lines http://cargocollective.com/mondrian/following/mondrian/Composition-with-Two-Lines Sun, 25 Jan 2009 16:07:56 +0000 Piet Mondrian 1416 During late 1920 and 1921, Mondrian's paintings arrive at what are their definitive and mature form to casual observers. Thick black lines now separate the forms, which are larger and fewer in number, and more of them are left white than was previously the case. This was not the culmination of his artistic evolution, however. Although the refinements became more subtle, Mondrian's work continued to evolve during his years in Paris. <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/200/1416/mon8.jpg" width="600" height="599" width_o="600" height_o="599" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/200/1416/mon8_o.jpg" data-mid="4948" border="0" align="left"/> During late 1920 and 1921, Mondrian's paintings arrive at what are their definitive and mature form to casual observers. Thick black lines now separate the forms,... http://cargocollective.com/mondrian/The-Grey-Tree http://cargocollective.com/mondrian/following/mondrian/The-Grey-Tree Sun, 25 Jan 2009 16:02:01 +0000 Piet Mondrian 1415 <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/200/1415/mon7.jpg" width="670" height="482" width_o="750" height_o="539" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/200/1415/mon7_o.jpg" data-mid="4947" border="0" align="left"/> The earliest paintings that show an inkling of the abstraction to come are a series of canvases from 1905 to 1908, which depict dim scenes of indistinct trees and houses with reflections in still water that make them appear almost like Rorschach ink blots. However, although the end result leads the viewer to begin emphasizing the forms over the content, these paintings are still firmly rooted in nature, and it is only the knowledge of Mondrian's later achievements that leads one to search for the roots of his future abstraction in these works. The earliest paintings that show an inkling of the abstraction to come are a series of canvases from 1905 to 1908, which depict dim scenes of indistinct trees and... http://cargocollective.com/mondrian/Composition-No-10 http://cargocollective.com/mondrian/following/mondrian/Composition-No-10 Sun, 25 Jan 2009 15:59:59 +0000 Piet Mondrian 1414 <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/200/1414/mon6.jpg" width="670" height="518" width_o="700" height_o="541" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/200/1414/mon6_o.jpg" data-mid="4946" border="0" align="left"/> He began his career as a teacher in primary education, but while teaching he also practiced painting. Most of his work from this period is naturalistic or impressionistic, consisting largely of landscapes. These pastoral images of his native Holland depict windmills, fields, and rivers, initially in the Dutch Impressionist manner of the Hague School and then in a variety of styles and techniques documenting his search for a personal voice. These paintings are most definitely representational, and illustrate the influence that various artistic movements had on Mondrian, including pointillism and the vivid colors of fauvism. He began his career as a teacher in primary education, but while teaching he also practiced painting. Most of his work from this period is naturalistic or... http://cargocollective.com/mondrian/Trees-in-Blossom http://cargocollective.com/mondrian/following/mondrian/Trees-in-Blossom Sun, 25 Jan 2009 15:57:29 +0000 Piet Mondrian 1413 <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/200/1413/mon5.jpg" width="670" height="481" width_o="700" height_o="503" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/200/1413/mon5_o.jpg" data-mid="4945" border="0" align="left"/> Mondrian wrote, on a postcard to art historian James Johnson Sweeney, planner of a retrospective exhibition of the artist's works at The Museum of Modern Art in New York: "Only now [in 1943], I become conscious that my work in black, white, and little color planes has been merely 'drawing' in oil color. In drawing, the lines are the principal means of expression; in painting, the color planes. In painting, however, the lines are absorbed by the color planes; but the limitation of the planes show themselves as lines and conserve their great value."[cite this quote] In these final works, the forms have indeed usurped the role of the lines, opening another new door for Mondrian's development as an abstractionist. The Boogie-Woogie paintings were clearly more of a revolutionary change than an evolutionary one, representing the most profound development in Mondrian's work since his abandonment of representational art in 1913. Mondrian wrote, on a postcard to art historian James Johnson Sweeney, planner of a retrospective exhibition of the artist's works at The Museum of Modern Art in... http://cargocollective.com/mondrian/Apple-Tree-in-Flower http://cargocollective.com/mondrian/following/mondrian/Apple-Tree-in-Flower Sun, 25 Jan 2009 15:52:39 +0000 Piet Mondrian 1412 <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/200/1412/mon4.jpg" width="670" height="488" width_o="750" height_o="546" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/200/1412/mon4_o.jpg" data-mid="4944" border="0" align="left"/> When 47-year-old Piet Mondrian left his artistically conservative native Holland for unfettered Paris for the second and last time in 1919, he set about at once to make his studio a nurturing environment for paintings he had in mind that would increasingly express the principles of Neo-Plasticism about which he had been writing for two years. To hide the studio's structural flaws quickly and inexpensively, he tacked up large rectangular placards, each in a single color or neutral hue. Smaller colored paper squares and rectangles, composed together, accented the walls. Then came an intense period of painting. Then again he addressed the walls, repositioning the colored cutouts, adding to their number, altering the dynamics of color and space, producing new tensions and equilibrium. Before long, he had established a creative schedule in which a period of painting took turns with a period of experimentally regrouping the smaller papers on the walls, a process that directly fed the next period of painting. It was a pattern he followed for the rest of his life, through wartime moves from Paris to London’s Hampstead in 1938 and 1940, across the Atlantic to Manhattan. When 47-year-old Piet Mondrian left his artistically conservative native Holland for unfettered Paris for the second and last time in 1919, he set about at once... http://cargocollective.com/mondrian/Landscape-with-Trees http://cargocollective.com/mondrian/following/mondrian/Landscape-with-Trees Sun, 25 Jan 2009 15:49:40 +0000 Piet Mondrian 1411 <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/200/1411/mon3.jpg" width="548" height="650" width_o="548" height_o="650" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/200/1411/mon3_o.jpg" data-mid="4943" border="0" align="left"/> Mondrian produced Lozenge Composition With Four Yellow Lines (1933), a simple painting that introduced what for him was a shocking innovation: thick, colored lines instead of black ones. After that one painting, this practice remained dormant in Mondrian's work until he arrived in New York, at which time he began to embrace it with abandon. In some examples of this new direction, such as Composition (1938) / Place de la Concorde (1943), he appears to have taken unfinished black-line paintings from Paris and completed them in New York by adding short perpendicular lines of different colors, running between the longer black lines, or from a black line to the edge of the canvas. The newly-colored areas are thick, almost bridging the gap between lines and forms, and it is startling to see color in a Mondrian painting that is unbounded by black. Other works mix long lines of red amidst the familiar black lines, creating a new sense of depth by the addition of a colored layer on top of the black one. Mondrian produced Lozenge Composition With Four Yellow Lines (1933), a simple painting that introduced what for him was a shocking innovation: thick, colored... http://cargocollective.com/mondrian/The-Red-Tree http://cargocollective.com/mondrian/following/mondrian/The-Red-Tree Sun, 25 Jan 2009 15:46:04 +0000 Piet Mondrian 1410 <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/200/1410/mon2.jpg" width="650" height="455" width_o="650" height_o="455" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/200/1410/mon2_o.jpg" data-mid="4942" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/200/1410/mon1.jpg" width="670" height="683" width_o="670" height_o="683" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/200/1410/mon1_o.jpg" data-mid="1794756" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/200/1410/mon8.jpg" width="600" height="599" width_o="600" height_o="599" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/200/1410/mon8_o.jpg" data-mid="1794757" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/200/1410/mon11.jpg" width="670" height="680" width_o="670" height_o="680" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/200/1410/mon11_o.jpg" data-mid="1794758" border="0" align="left"/> In September 1938, Mondrian left Paris in the face of advancing fascism and moved to London. After the Netherlands were invaded and Paris fell in 1940, he left London for New York City, where he would remain until his death. Some of Mondrian's later works are difficult to place in terms of his artistic development, because there were quite a few canvases that he began in Paris or London which he only completed months or years later in New York. However, the finished works from this later period demonstrate an unprecedented busy-ness, with more lines than any of his work since the 1920s, placed in an overlapping arrangement that is almost cartographical in appearance. He spent many long hours painting on his own until his hands blistered and he sometimes cried or made himself sick. In September 1938, Mondrian left Paris in the face of advancing fascism and moved to London. After the Netherlands were invaded and Paris fell in 1940, he left...