New York City
Black lines open up to colors
To escape the war, Mondrian had moved from Paris to London in 1938 and by the end of 1940 he arrived in the USA. In addition to brushes and oil paints, New York City offered Mondrian a new tool to use in producing his works, namely colored tape, which allowed him to change the positions of the lines and thus work on the composition with greater flexibility. Once a satisfactory configuration had been obtained, it could be made permanent in oils.
In 1933 the artist had already used yellow lines. The blossoming of colored lines constitutes a further development in the process of opening up space to multiplicity which had begun in 1934 with a progressive increase of black lines:
In New York City (Fig. 5) we see no fewer than twenty-three lines, fifteen of which are yellow, four red, and four blue.
New York City, 1942, Oil on Canvas, cm. 114,2 x 119,3
New York City, Diagram A
The lines expand and contract the white surface of the canvas, which is maintained in a state of unstable equilibrium between the two opposing directions. Horizontal and vertical sometimes attain equivalence and assume proportions of comparatively greater stability.
Squares of variable size and proportions generate and dissolve in a variety of combinations between yellow, red and blue lines. Fig. 5a: Squares 1 and 2 are similar in terms of form but differ as regards their respective distribution of colors:
New York City, Diagram A
The same holds for 3 and 4. Mondrian seems to have been intent above all in square 2 on combining the three colors so as to express not only a synthesis of horizontal and vertical but of yellow, red, and blue at the same time.
A dynamic square
The eye travels along the lines, stops, singles out a certain configuration, and lingers on it, but all around the space is set in motion again with the alternating predominance of the different colors and directions. Square forms generate and dissolve in a variety of combinations between yellow, red and blue lines. The permanent black and white square unit of the 1920’s has now become dynamic and multiple; not only in terms of form as we have seen here but also in terms of color.
Twenty-two years..
Observe the four canvases below in sequential order:
A white square field (1920) absorbed color over a span of twenty years and multiplied all over the surface of the canvas in 1942, changing in terms of position, proportions, and relations between the different colors. The single black and white unity of 1920 has undergone interpenetration with manifold space and is now wholly imbued with color and dynamism (1942). Even perhaps too much. The eye scarcely has time to identify a more stable relationship between opposites (a square) before finding itself immersed in the dynamic and continuous flux of the lines. This happens because when color was applied to lines, the former colored planes disappeared and the painter found himself grappling with compositions in never-ending development:
While the need felt around 1933 had been to increase the level of multiplicity it was now necessary to re-establish a greater degree of synthesis in a space that had undergone considerable multiplication in the meantime and continued uninterruptedly with the lines alone. “The straight lines intersect and touch one another tangentially but continue uninterruptedly.” (Mondrian)
Three-dimensional?
New York City, 1942
Another aspect that appears unsatisfactory in New York City is the fact that the points where lines of different color intersect are no longer marked by a single homogeneous plane, as happened with the black lines, but instead by the predominance of one color over the other. The colors seem to be on three different planes, with yellow, red, and blue appearing respectively on the first, second, and third. This superimposition creates a three-dimensional effect with which Mondrian could hardly be satisfied, since one of his aims had always been precisely the elimination of any perspective-based illusion of supposed and nonexistent third dimensions in order to express reality in the two real dimensions of painting. The problem arising as from this moment was to bring the three different planes of the yellow, red, and blue back onto a single plane.
Re-establishing a single plane
New York City, 1942, Diagram C
Fig. 5c shows how the predominance of yellow over red or red over blue is resolved by ensuring that each line allows the perpendicular section covered over to reappear shortly after. A single plane is re-established and the three colors are brought together while preserving their specific qualities: sections of yellow, red, and blue begin to interpenetrate within every line in the shape of small squares and this will give birth to Broadway Boogie Woogie.
From New York City to Broadway Boogie Woogie
Oil on Canvas, cm. 127 x 127
The painting will be examined in the next page Neoplasticism – Part 6.
Visit next page: Neoplasticism – Part 6
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