untitled, Charmion von Wiegand

Episode 133. I’m David Cateforis with another art minute from the Spencer Museum of Art. Charmion von Wiegand, an American journalist and artist, met the Dutch painter Piet Mondrian in New York in 1941, and was deeply impressed by his nonobjective art. Like Mondrian, von Wiegand sought to achieve a spiritual quality in her painting by eliminating references to nature and working strictly with primary colors, black and white, and pure geometric forms. Her small 1945 canvas in the Spencer collection offers an asymmetrical arrangement of vertical and horizontal bars divided into red, blue, yellow, and black rectangles, surrounded by white. Because the composition lacks depth, the lively geometric design seems to play upon the surface of the canvas. This untitled work recalls Mondrian's 1943 painting, Broadway Boogie Woogie, which without depicting skyscrapers, neon signs or tapping feet, successfully evokes the rhythms of Manhattan and the pulsing beat of the Boogie Woogie dance he loved. Von Wiegand actually watched Mondrian at work on this painting, so it is not surprising that her canvas in the Spencer reflects its influence. With thanks to Nancy Hernandez for her text, from the Spencer Museum of Art, I’m David Cateforis.