Red squares. Black lines. Yellow rectangles. White backgrounds. Primary colors, basic geometry. If you can use a ruler, you too can have your creations grace the walls of a museum.
Yet, it’s not quite as simple as it looks. For anyone who has ever tried to sketch a doodle resembling Dutch artist Piet Mondian’s works, actually creating a balanced composition is frustratingly difficult. Adding color to such a collection of lines presents another challenge.
Mondrian has never been fully accepted by museum-goers, who often fail to apprecitate the subtlety of his manipulations of color and form. His home in the canon of modern art has also never been secure—Mondrian all to often is accused of being a mere designer.
The posthumous answer to Mondrian’s critics comes in the form of the Fogg’s new curatorial masterpiece, “Mondrian: the Transatlantic Paintings.” With the academic rigor and focus on conservation expected of a university, the exhibit singlehandedly restores Mondrian’s reputation as a painter who knew how to manipulate our innate response to color and form.
The man who coined the term “Neoplasticism” to describe his work gets his due from technological innovation. With x-radiography, UV and infrared studies, as well as stereomicroscope analysis to examine pigment changes, the conservationists at the Fogg have managed to discover a wealth of information literally behind the lines.
Lines, colors, positions of shapes-—additions and subtractions run rampant throughout Mondrian’s paintings. Displayed in the exhibit are the fruits of exhaustive research, as UV photos show changes to the works. His works were in a constant state of flux.
With this technology, the potency of a small changes to a painting from the extension of a single black line to the creation of a lighter shade of blue reveal Mondrian’s careful consideration of every element of fhis compositions.
The transatlantic paintings get their name precisely from the changes Mondrian made to his works as the painter fled Europe from the threat of World War II.
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