Brug aan de Middenweg (Bridge on the Middenweg), Piet Mondrian

Archive Label 2003:
The canal bridge is a typical Dutch art subject, but in this sketch, Mondrian’s efforts toward geometricizing and abstracting elements can already be detected in the composition. After 1912, Mondrian turned from figural painting to pure abstraction, finding an underlying order in the building blocks of the natural world. Throughout his life, Mondrian placed a high priority on sharing his theories of abstraction and color dynamics, publishing his ideas regularly in an impressive array of languages.

After spending many creative years in Paris, the established artist temporarily moved to London in 1938. Mondrian wrote passionately about the evils of Nazi and Soviet oppression and the fall of Paris in 1940 prompted his final move to the United States to escape fascism. His abstract style was fully established by the time he arrived in New York, but the city provided the artist with fresh inspiration. His last completed work, Broadway Boogie Woogie, is full of the rhythms of American jazz and undergirded with the architectural structure of city blocks and skyscrapers. Mondrian wrote fondly of shopping on Second Avenue, seeing the moon in a still blue sky reflected in the square windows, and finding in that moment a perfect union of life and art.