Wednesday, September 5, 2001

A new perspective
Mondrian exhibit bound to change prior perceptions of modern art
Story by Eric Elton
Skiff Staff

Simple squares and rectangles colored differently with lines placed at spontaneous places, all together hold no worthwhile meaning: This is the fundamental definition of abstract art to most people.

However, the Dallas Museum of Arts’ “Mondrian: The Transatlantic Paintings,” will challenge that perception of abstract art. The exhibit runs through Nov. 25 in the museum’s J.E.R. Chilton Galleries.

Dutch painter Piet Mondrian (1872-1944) influenced architectural and interior design, along with industrial and decorative art, so if you’re not into abstract painting, there’s still much to be seen.

In four rooms, the exhibit features the works of Mondrian, a pioneer in the development of the artistic movement of abstraction. He was also known for neoplasticism, a style based on an absolute harmony of straight lines and pure colors underlying the visible world.

The first room houses Mondrian’s latest and most renowned works, “The Transatlantic Paintings,”organized by the Harvard University Art Museums. The simplistic, cubist, neoplasticism was adopted after his move to Paris in 1911. In these paintings, Mondrian uses primary colors of red, yellow and blue to represent the basic colors in their purist forms. Mondrian is not concerned with texture because nothing is raised higher than the flat canvas.

One thing that did concern Mondrian was geometric shapes. It’s evident that he is an optimist when looking at these paintings, especially “Place de la Concorde,” which has lines running off the canvas to show there are no limitations to human capabilities. When you look at this painting, everything is perfectly straight to represent a utopia. The black represents the cohesion or the order of everything.

As if going backward in Mondrian’s artistic evolution, the next room is Dallas Collets which displays some of his earlier works such as landscapes and a self portrait. When Mondrian paints landscapes, the object in the landscape is the focus but in the background so as to not neglect the rest of the work. In “Windmill at Blaricum,” blue is used to convey serenity, and the windmill seems to be in the middle of an ocean.

Mondrian has all the lines in the work lead up to the windmill and doesn’t show anything past it to focus on he singularity of the piece. Also, the flags of the windmill run off the page to represent the boundlessness of life. The sun peaking out from a cloud represents his optimism, a theme often present in Mondrian’s pieces.

Color in Space, the third room, was renovated to the idea of De Stijlor or “the style.” It was originally a published magazine that led the architectural movement started by painter and architect Theo van Doesburg (1883-1931) in 1917 which took hold of the art movement because it supported pure abstraction and simplicity. The walls are painted to recapture the look of Mondrian’s “No. 7” and “No.4,” and the room is decorated with zig-zag chairs and other furniture that are similar to other Mondrian images.

America Responds is the last room and demonstrates the impact that this dynamic painter had on other artists in America such as Harry Holtzman, Charles Bizderman and Ilya Bolotwsky.

Overall, the DMA creates an adequate overview of the life and works of Piet Mondrian. It is a worthwhile trip to make for fans of the extremes, and it won’t cost a penny.

Soon to come to the J.E.R. Chilton Galleries is the exhibition of “Great Masters of Mexican Folk Art,” Oct. 7 through Jan. 6.

Eric Elton
e.e.elton@student.tcu.edu