Tuesday 21 February 2012

Two new Mondrians

In Yvonne Louis's fascinating book A Brush with Mondrian, the author mentions that when Simon Maris's daughter, Mies, died in 1997 (at the age of 87) the artist Paul Gorter found two Mondrians in the Maris family house which are now at the Drents Museum, though not on display for security reasons.

The images are from the museum's catalogue, a scan of which they kindly provided.

The first is Corner of Farmyard (Hoekje van Boerenerf), c.1897/99, black chalk, 31x41.5 cm.

The second is Row of trees along the Gein (Rij bomen langs het Gein), c.1906/07, chalk and watercolour, 59x84 cm.


I cannot find either image in the Catalogue Raisonne, although there are several paintings similar in subject, though not in size, to the watercolour.


And, of course, Yvonne Louis might have a new Mondrian too.

Tuesday 14 February 2012

Mondrian on film

I have been on the lookout for film of PM for years. The 2010 Paris exhibition included a film of Mondrian, Calder and a cat, but I have not found internet links to that yet.

Today, though I found 16 seconds of Mondrian with B323Broadway Boogie Woogie, 1942-1943 on the NOS website.


Back to Calder and cats, this blog suggests that the film was shown in New York in 2011.
And this lists the piece as "Elizabeth Fuller Chapman, aka Bobsy Goodspeed – historic footage with Calder, Duchamp, Matisse, Mondrian..."
 

Friday 3 February 2012

Mondrian portrait

Mondrian's A144 is Seated Woman with Arms Crossed, painted in 1898-1900. The subject is thought to be the Dutch writer Til Brugman or Noortje, the wife of Mondrian's artist friend Simon Maris


I love the pose and have sought to encourage others to portray themselves in this way. But no response. There are a few similar Mondrian pieces which I'll add in due course, but apart from that, I'll pursue it through one of me and bits and pieces found elsewhere.


Here's a photograph, taken today, which will provide the basis for a painting. (There's a lucky, unintentional, reflection of one of the Mondrian windows in my specs.)


Then we have Aaron Shikler's 1970 portrait of J.F. Kennedy.






And a 1st-2nd century Roman mask from the British Museum.


Any other contributions will be welcomed.


Here's the original web page.