“To study Mondrian is to shine a light on the relationship between popular culture and the canonisation of art”
Certain
works of art embed themselves in the public’s consciousness, in such a way that
surpasses their creators -the artist’s life, and the circumstances in which
they were produced. In Mondrian’s case,
it isn’t so much a single painting that
acts as the pièce de résistance to eclipse the artist himself or outshine his
other works, but rather the ‘look’ of
his iconic neoplastic oeuvre.
Tate’s blockbuster
summer exhibition- Mondrian and his
Studios – marks the 70th anniversary of the artist’s death and offers a window into his life; through
an insight into his itinerant studios, mapping his journey from his homeland in
the Netherlands, as a figurative painter, to his rise to international significance,
moving towards geometric abstraction as a proponent for the ‘De Stijl’
movement. Offering a new insight into his restless pursuit to reduce, refine
and re-assert the essence of line and space, colour and form.
The weight
of this exhibition is devoted to his signature panelled pieces – the
‘Neoplastic’ – an examination of primary colour, geometric space and line, void
of any attempt at natural form. But Mondrian, not content with the confines of
canvas, evolved ‘The Style’ to include three dimensional maquettes, furniture
and most notably this manifests itself in the ‘atelier as artwork’ of his studios.
Taking visitors through the artist’s
ateliers in Paris, London and New York, the exhibition trails Mondrian’s
personal and aesthetic journey, and exposes links between the two: a key highlight
of this retrospective is the immersive full-scale reconstruction of his Parisian
studio, at 26 Rue du Depart, which allows viewers to momentarily occupy not
only Mondrian’s creative domain but also step inside what appears to be a
three-dimensional version of one of his paintings.
The
retrospective begins with a display of earlier works such as trees and
seascapes; the latitude and freedom of these paintings of organic forms is
refreshing to see in contrast with the rigorous geometry characteristic of his
later compositions. The exhibition path quickly navigates us towards the
artist’s move to Paris, which sees Mondrian’s iconic compositional bravura
really take off.
On first
exposure to the main exhibition space (comprising the ‘neoplastic’ collection),
Mondrian’s primary coloured pieces appear, perhaps, lost in a giant lattice of
tedious homogeneousness. But when forced to scrutinise each painting individually,
the more discerning viewer notices the composure, the balance and a sense of
equilibrium in these impeccably calibrated and nuanced compositions.
His artwork
has been paid homage to repeatedly, perhaps more than any other modern
artist, Piet Mondrian has turned into a global brand,
with his trademark yellow, blue, and red geometric compositions appropriated by
pop culture. However this scholarly and judiciously curated retrospective is
due much credit for its success in casting a new light on the old lines.
Mondrian
and his Studios is
juxtaposed with a comparative exhibition of Nasreen Mohamedi. A relatively
unknown pioneering Indian artist, whose work comprises collage, paint and pen
to create stark graphic compositions. This perfect pairing between Mondrian and
Mohamedi, allows for a better insight into both artists’ journeys toward
abstraction. Though working in different times and in different places,
Mohamedi and Mondrian had similar motivations in their practices and in what
they aimed to discover and achieve through art; both were able to extract the
maximum out of the minimum.
