'Broadway Boogie - Woogie'

PIET MONDRIAN

1942-43
oil on canvas, 50- 50 cm. - New York, Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) (www.moma.org)

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“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”, wrote Robert Motherwell about this painting, expressing that the Dutch artist had finally added the emotion to his works.

In effect, although Mondrian's works are far from being what we would denominate an “emotional” painting, it's true that his arrival to New York in 1939 caused him a series of emotions that influenced his later works. "Broadway Boogie-Woogie" is, in addition to the zenith of the "de Stijl" painting, a tribute to jazz music and the American culture, created by multiple lines made with rectangles of pure colour.

Text: G. Fernández, www.theartwolf.com

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