From 1938 to 1940 Piet Mondrian, who had fled wartime Paris to London. During this period he continued working in the highly reductivist Neo-Plastic mode he had developed in France, in which horizontal and vertical black lines intersect on the canvas in asymmetrically balanced relationships to yield flat white or colored quadrilaterals, using a restricted palette of black, white, and primary colours.

By divorcing form completely from its referential meaning, Mondrian hoped to provide a visual equivalent for the truths that inhabit nature but are concealed in its random, flawed manifestations.

In order to effect this transmission the artist must sublimate his personality so that it does not interfere with the viewer?s perception of the rhythmic equilibrium of line, dimension, and colour. These elements, however, are organized not according to the impersonal dictates of mathematics but rather to the intuition of the artist.

Likewise, although the artist?s gesture is minimized and the reference to personal experience erased, his presence can be detected in the stroke of the paintbrush and the unevenness of the edge of the transcendent line.

Last edited on 2005.03.14 04:15