Piet Mondrian · Broadway Boogie-Woogie

1942 – Oil on canvas – MoMA, New York

“The Modern City! Precise, rectangular, squared, whether seen from above, below, or on the side; bright lights and sterilized life; Broadway, whites and blacks; and boogie-woogie; the underground music of the at once resigned and rebellious. Mondrian has left his white paradise and entered the world”, Robert Motherwell wrote about this painting, expressing that the Dutch artist had finally added emotion to his works.

In effect, although Mondrian’s works are far from being what we would denominate “emotional” paintings, his arrival to New York in 1939 provoked in him a series of emotions that influenced his later works. “Broadway Boogie-Woogie” is not only the zenith of the “de Stijl” painting, but also a tribute to jazz music and the American culture, created by multiple lines made with rectangles of pure colour.

Text: G. Fernández, theartwolf.com