SELECTION OF THE ORIGINAL MONDRIAAN’S PAINTINGS
December 2012
Paintings from “00” to “46”

The cycle of works which Mondrian produced during his abstract period dates essentially from 1917 until his death in 1944.

From these, I selected 46 works to cover the entire time span. But truth to tell, I could have included them all, and would have liked to have done so.

I based my choice partly on personal taste but mainly by applying the criterion of picking out the most significant works: those which demonstrate an on-going development in terms of composition.

Finally, taking account of the various processes carried out on sample work zero/zero, I selected those works which best lent themselves to such a purpose.

In general, the selected works can be divided up into two main groups: those from no.01 to no.20 (1917-1929), and the rest from no.21 to no.46 (1931-1943)

The works in the first group illustrate Mondrian’s initial phase of development, with the compositions of black lines and planes of primary colour exhibiting a design which gradually becomes sparser, advancing ever more towards simplicity.

The second group demonstrates this evolution even further, containing some works where the planes of colour all but disappear and give way to arrangements of black lines on a totally white ground. This progression culminates in work no. 34, known as “New York City”, in which Mondrian abandons the black line altogether and just uses lines of colour.

Another feature influencing the selection of certain works is the presence of an extremely rare exception. This is the unusual case where a section of black line is positioned right on the edge of the painting (as for example in no.08 and no.15).

Works no.16 and no.33 were also chosen because they belong to that small group of works in which a diagonal element appears: at least in the form of the picture. It is in the shape of a rhombus or lozenge. Mondrian used this towards the beginning of his abstract period and returned to it a few times during its whole development.  And, almost as if to close an evolutionary cycle, he used it in his last famous work, “Victory Boogie Woogie”, which, together with “Broadway Boogie Woogie”, illustrates his achievement of that perfect celestial harmony.

I intentionally did not include these works in the project, out of a sense of reverence and timidity, almost like not wishing to profane “perfection”.

However, in creating the images for the last work (no. 46), I made use of a charcoal sketch that Mondrian drew as a study for “Broadway Boogie Woogie”, even though it is only small in size.

FOR ALL IMAGES OF MONDRIAN ORIGINAL WORKS
© Mondrian/Holtzman Trust

UPDATING 2014
47 – B292 / 48 – B269 / 49 – B313

UPDATING 2016
50 – B230 / 51 – B272 / 52 – B318 / 53 – B284

UPDATING 2017
54 – B101 / 55 – B191 / 56 – B185 / 57 – B222 / 58 – B261 / 59 – B199 / 60 – B129 / 61 – B143 / 62 – B311 / 63 – B141 / 64 – B200 / 65 – B212 / 66 – B264 / 67 – B309 / 68 – B304 / 69 – B131 / 70 – B127 / 71 – B182 / 72 – B188 / 73 – B190 / 74 – B233 / 75 – B238 / 76 – B254 / 77 – B263

UPDATING 2018
78 – B196 / 79 – B194 / 80 – B153 / 81 – B162 / 82 – B147 / 83 – B305 / 84 – B160 / 85 – B159 / 86 – B163 / 87 – B134 / 88 – B152 / 89 – B165

  GRAPHIC PROCESSING

G01 – B270 / G02 – B124

  THE DISAPPEARED MONDRIANS

R01 – B149 / R02 – B161 / R03 – B180 / R04 – B202 / R05 – B119 / R06 – B171 / R07 – B242 / R08 – B157 / R09 – B158 / R10 – B164 / R11 – B118 / R12 – B148 / R13 – B169 / R14 – B174 / R15 – B177 / R16 – B181 / R17 – B186 / R18 – B245 / R19 – B184 / R20 – B175

for details on the reconstruction of the missing paintings, consult this publication