
Piet Mondrian
Scaffold: Study for Tableau III
1914
On view
Piet Mondrian
1938–39
From 1938 to 1940 Piet Mondrian lived in London and continued working in the highly reductivist Neo-Plastic mode he had developed in France, in which horizontal and vertical black lines intersect on the canvas in asymmetrically balanced relationships to yield flat white or colored quadrilaterals. The palette is generally restricted to black, white, and primary colors. The present work is among the more coloristically austere examples. By divorcing form completely from its referential meaning, Mondrian hoped to provide a visual equivalent for the truths that inhabit nature but are concealed in its random, flawed manifestations. He felt that if he could communicate these truths by means of a system of resolved oppositions, the spiritual effect on the viewer would be one of total repose and animistic harmony. In order to effect this transmission the artist must sublimate his personality so that it does not interfere with the viewer’s perception of the rhythmic equilibrium of line, dimension, and color. These elements, however, are organized not according to the impersonal dictates of mathematics but rather to the intuition of the artist. Mondrian sought to unite art, matter, and spirit to discover in all aspects of experience the universal harmony posited in Neo-Plasticism.
Not on View
Artist | Piet Mondrian |
Date | 1938–39 |
Medium | Oil on canvas |
Dimensions | canvas 105.2 x 102.3 cm |
Credit line | Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice (Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York) |
Accession | 76.2553 PG 39 |
Collection | Peggy Guggenheim Collection |
Type | Painting |
Copy caption
Not on View
Piet Mondrian
1914
On view
Piet Mondrian
1915
Not on View
Jean Dubuffet
1979
Not on View
Emilio Vedova
1951
Not on View