Gecko and budgie galleries

For future reference, this is posted at the time of the coronavirus lockdown when museums and galleries were closed and most people stayed at home.
Hyperallergic reported that Jill Young in Dallas created a home gallery to entertain her pet gecko, comprising some fine gecko-themed pieces, including a Mondrian (possibly a B219). All © Jill Young.

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[Apr24] There's more, again from Hyperallergic, this time for budgies etc. Also a gerbil and a tortoise but no PM seen with those.

Missing Mondrians

I sent a copy earlier this year to Marek Wieczorek, who asked for one. I recently found that Franseco Visalli is working on a similar project and so sent him a copy today. I have ordered five more from Lulu with no changes other than the publication details.

Mondrian's women

Found at the Gemeente Museum. Details here.

Feet Mondrian

Spotted in the National Portrait Gallery today. £9 per pair.

Deeply unimpressive.

The Hague, De Stijl

The i(ndependent) reports,

"The Hague has unveiled the largest Mondrian work in the world. The painting with the familiar red, yellow and blue surfaces and straight lines is being exhibited at the Dutch town's City Hall as a prelude to a major show featuring all 300 Mondrian works which are normally loaned out to international museums.
Willem-Alexander, the King of the Netherlands, will open the exhibition which runs from 3 June to 24 September."

The image is one of several shown on hyperallergic

Marlow Moss show

My favourite academic and curator, Lucy Howarth, has a new show coming up in Zurich.

New work? FEMALE PORTRAIT BUST IN EXOTIC COSTUME, 1899

Described by Mutual Art as FEMALE PORTRAIT BUST IN EXOTIC COSTUME, 1899.

Charcoal, conté crayon, and pastel on shaped paper

25 1/8 by 21 3/4 in. 63.8 by 55.5 cm

Provenance
 Jay Eldridge (by 1989) Sale: Christie's, New York, October 2, 1990, lot 38 (titled Meisjesportrait) Jeanne Frank Fine Arts, New York Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1993

Not a work I recall seeing before.

Missing Mondrians

3 copies of 1.3 to my erstwhile colleagues at Dartford CAB, Sally, Sally and Jo.

Cartoon

Spectator, 28th May 2016

Missing Mondrians

It has all gone rather quiet on my little book.
The other British libraries did not request a copy and I have done nothing about the Library of Congress.

I have been occupied with other non-Mondrian projects, but I am inclined in the near future to send copies to the British libraries, stylishly-redacted copies to the LoC and then call it a day.

I did call into the V&A library recently to check that they still had it while researching Hepworth Square Forms.

Katy Perry

I have no idea who Katy Perry is, but she intersected with PM in 2014.

Here's a link.

It might be possible to identify the background using the Blackburn-Mondrian Index.

Mondrian Elephant

On sale on ebay, ending today.
Priced at £34.50, I thought that a little greedy: I would have bought it at £20.

Described in the sale as,

Elephant Parade 10cm Hommage to Mondriaan collectable Elephant

All the elephants are hand painted in Thailand so may not be identical to the image
Each replica elephant sold goes towards supporting the work of the Asian elephant Foundation and is part of an exclusive limited edition only available for a limited time.
Each Elephant comes boxed with a certificate listing its name, artist, year, parade and unique serial number

Mondrian cup

Happy birthday to me (and to Marty Bax).
I received said cup PLUS a Jeremy Corbyn plush.

Hiccups (and cartoons in general)

Bought today on eBay, a rather faded and yellowed cartoon described as

"This auction is for the original art to the July 18th, 1959 Mister Breger - written and drawn by Dave Breger. Shows out hero at a MOMA like museum looking at Mondrians - Modern Art on wall. King Features Syndicate, Inc. tag at bottom 1959 - zip-a-tone yellowed but art looks clean otherwise. Very light stain at very bottom right. Original Skinner auction tag on back and stamped June 19, 1959 from original engraver in prep for publication. "

 The caption is (including detailed punctuation),

"'...and then,' it says, 'his work was somewhat affected by a three-week attack of hiccups...'"

Mondrian Studios II

My piece on the studios is here.

In a few days Cees W. de Jong and Marty Bax will publish a book on the subject. Amazon link here.

The Telegraph today published a long piece by Lucy Davies on their web site (though not in the paper edition I bought, or rather got free from Waitrose). Here's the link.

She might deserve a copy of the book.

Library of Congress copies

I have been blowing hot and cold on the question of sending the requisite 2 copies of The Missing Mondrians to the Library of Congress.

Here are a few relevant points from Wikipedia on US copyright:

1. The book cannot be sold in the US because (although Mondrian died more than 70 years ago) the copyright for four of the illustrations will remain with the Mondrian / Holtzman Trust  until 2022-2051.
2. Wikipedia on US copyright makes these points:
• On fair use, nonprofit, educational and factual considerations are in my favour; 
• Substantially goes against me as I am reproducing the whole paintings;
• The book will not affect the sale prices of paintings.
3. On civil penalties, damages are actual or statutory: actual would not apply, but statutory ranges from $750 to $30k, $300k if the infringement is willful. Criminal penalties also apply: up to $500k and 5 years for the first offence, $1M and/or 10 years for subsequent offences.

The case of United States v. LaMacchia 871 F.Supp. 535 (D.Mass. 1994) gave rise to the LaMacchia Loophole, which suggested that there is no copyright infringement where there is no commercial benefit. The No Electronic Theft Act (NET Act) (1997) closed the loophole, but presumably only for software.

My current thought is  to send copies of the new edition (3rd print) which includes the copyright notes and physically cover up the four pictures for which copyright has not expired. An alternative is to rewrite the sections showing the four pictures to use alternative paintings on which it has expired.

Reflecta Classic AF

From a charity shop in Dartford, the box of a Reflecta Classic AF slide projector.

Sticky notes (Monde Riant)

Post-It is a trademark of 3M and so this stylish PMesque set is described in the offer as a sticky note block.

Designed by Assia Quétin & Catherine Denoyelle, called Monde Riant, and available from pa-design. I believe the name translates as something like 'happy world'.

I would have paid the €13 they wanted for the product, but not the €18 cost of posting it to me.

Painting with Lego

There's a lovely film by John Rolph here on YouTube. The process is more complex that you might at first imagine.

The work is B217, Composition with Red, Blue and Yellow, and other homages have been celebrated earlier in this blog.

Tomato box

This blog is still home to trivial PM posts and here is Kevin in a tomato box from Lidl.