Gespräch über Perspektiven auf ‚New York City I‘ mit Kuratorin Susanne Meyer-Büser und Restauratorin Anne Skaliks
Die Neue Gestaltung
Ab 1920 folgt Mondrian konsequent seiner Neuen Gestaltung. Die ersten Werke, die er nach dem neuen Prinzip fertigstellt, beinhalten Flächen in den drei Grundfarben sowie graue, hellblaue oder orangefarbene Farbflächen. In den folgenden Jahren reduziert er die Farbgebung immer weiter, weiße Flächen kommen hinzu.
Mondrian hört keineswegs mit dem Experimentieren auf. So interessiert ihn ab 1928 die quadratische Leinwand als Ausgangsform für die Komposition oder auch der Einfluss der doppelten schwarzen Linie auf das Gesamtgefüge.
1918
Komposition mit grauen Linien [Rasterkomposition 3: Rautenkomposition]
Mondrian plant die Bilder nicht im Voraus, sondern entwickelt die Kompositionen suchend auf der Leinwand. Er arbeitet jeweils so lange daran, bis die einzelnen Bildelemente für ihn in harmonischem Gleichgewicht zueinander stehen. Dafür verändert und übermalt er die Kompositionen immer und immer wieder.
1919
Rasterkomposition 8: Damebrettkomposition mit dunklen Farben
Mondrian’s studio is, for him, a mental place of privacy, where a multitude of artistic works are created. At the same time, it is his contact zone with the outside world; a meeting place for artist friends and interested buyers.
Mondrian always furnishes his studios in Paris, London, and New York in a similar way: He paints the walls white. He makes simple furniture, such as tables and stools, from fruit crates. Colored cardboard boxes decorate the walls, their position constantly changing. This creates a walk-in, neoplastic composition with which Mondrian explores the effects of color in space.
Based on Mondrian’s work, a cosmos of various adaptations, further developments, and new creations of the neoplastic principle emerges: The artist influences the artworks of his contemporaries of the De Stijl movement, the architecture of the Bauhaus, and later also product and industrial designers or couturiers such as Yves Saint Laurent. The seemingly simple compositions of black lines and colored surfaces on a white background revolutionized not only the art world. A close look at the exhibits in the exhibition “Mondrian. Evolution” makes it clear that it is only Mondrian’s principle that is consumable, freely adapted and interpreted for design templates, consumer items, or everyday objects - and continues to be so today.
Harry Holtzman, The studio of Piet Mondrian after his death
During his two-year stay in London, Mondrian meets Peggy Guggenheim, an American art collector, who would compile one of the hitherto most important art collections in the world.
In her gallery Guggenheim Jeune on Cork Street in London, Piet Mondrian exhibits in the group show “Abstract and Concrete Art,” which runs from May 10 to 31, 1939. There, he shows the paintings “Composition of Red and White: No. 1” and “Composition No. 2.”
18th September 1957
Peggy Guggenheim, in front of a painting by Piet Mondrian
Venice, Italy, 18th September 1957
In her autobiography, Peggy Guggenheim reports that Mondrian is a very good dancer, which suggests that they went out together. As a result of the outbreak of the Second World War, Guggenheim moves back to the United States. There, they both meet again; and since she highly appreciates Mondrian’s artistic mind, he becomes part of the selection committee of her museum. According to an anecdote, it was Mondrian who discovered the talent of the young artist Jackson Pollock and convinced Guggenheim, who found his works “quite awful,” to acquire them.
Charmion von Wiegand
In 1941, Piet Mondrian meets the artist and journalist Charmion von Wiegand in New York.
The latter works for the magazine “Living Age” and intends to write an article about Mondrian. This leads to a first interview from which a close friendship develops. Mondrian and von Wiegand meet regularly, mostly in his apartment at 353 East 56th Street. They talk about art and philosophy, as well as about theosophy. He values her opinion on his works: Letters reveal that he regularly asks her to reflect on his compositions. In Charmion von Wiegand’s diary, there is a sketch of the work that would later be titled “Victory Boogie Woogie.” A keen observer, she notes the developments in Mondrian’s works. “I like to talk to you because it helps my thoughts,” he is said to have told her.
1931
Portrait of Charmion von Wiegand (1898-1983) with Composition No.I, with Red (1931) of Piet Mondrian
1931, RKD – Netherlands Institute for Art History
Charmion von Wiegand also revised and corrected Mondrian’s English texts – among others, the essay “Toward the True Vision of Reality,” which is published on the occasion of Mondrian’s first solo exhibition at Valentine Gallery in New York in 1942. Mondrian’s English is not very good; and without Charmion von Wiegand’s assistance, many of his thoughts and texts would certainly not have been published in the form they were.
Notes by Charmion von Wiegand reveal that she fell in love with Piet Mondrian. He does not return her sentiments, however, and the two increasingly go their separate ways. By the middle of 1942, they have hardly any contact with each other. When Charmion von Wiegand begins to paint again in the fall of 1942 and tells Mondrian about it, he finds only scathing words: “You are a writer and I don’t want to know about your painting.” After Piet Mondrian’s death in 1944, Charmion von Wiegand embarks on an artistic career.
