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Piet
Mondrian: The Transatlantic Paintings at the Busch-Reisinger Museum,
April 28-July 22, 2001
For
abstract painter Piet Mondrian (1872-1944), the darkening political situation in 1930s
Europe had an unexpected upside. True, it forced him to flee Paris,
scrambling for safe haven in London. But by 1940, it had brought the
jazz-loving Dutch artist to New York. Energized by the city—especially
its red-hot music scene—Mondrian began reworking the paintings
he'd brought with him from Europe. Bouncing multiple black lines into
his trademark grid works, syncopating their rhythms with eye-opening
shots of color, he jolted the canvases with what he called "more boogie woogie."
At
Harvard's Busch-Reisinger Museum, Piet Mondrian: The
Transatlantic Paintings presents some 15 works that the
artist started in Europe and finished in New York. Gathered from
museums throughout Europe
and the U.S., they offer a focused look at the artistic processes
that Mondrian used in his later paintings. The exhibition features
a computer kiosk where visitors can take a virtual tour through
several of the canvases—discovering, layer by layer, the different
versions of each painting revealed through two years' worth of high-tech
research at the Harvard Art Museums' conservation center.
"I don't want pictures," Mondrian once said. "I just want to find
things out." No doubt he'd be as pleased as museumgoers are with this
latest round of discoveries. On view April 28-July 22.
Key Terms:
Piet Mondrian
Jazz
Dutch
New York
boogie woogie
See Also:
Modern
Abstract
de Stijl
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