As I was looking at the rest of the Philips Collection, a women informed us she would be giving a short talk in the next room about a paintings. Every morning and afternoon an education department member will give a 15 min. talk about a painting of their choosing. The painting she chose was Piet Mondrian’s Painting Number 9. I noticed the painting as I passed through its room earlier and the initial feeling it gave me was tight and measured and I prefer loose. The talk changed my feeling of the work.
Notes:
– first of all, what do you see when you look at this piece? the educator asked
one women said a city grid or a map. I said looks like you’re looking down from above
– abstraction of space
– part of theosophists, interested in mysticism
– He was asking what are the elements of painting that get to the spiritual essence?
– barest essentials, primary colors
– I like his earlier work that is passed around on a pamphlet, “Pier on Ocean” more organic, oval, brown/tan/black/white
– he was influenced by NCY grid system
– assigned emotions and spiritual values to colors…yellow=buoyancy and introversion, something higher that’s why yellow box is at top of painting
– he was writing constantly as he was painting
– interested in balancing space with flatness effect
– tapping into something more visceral/spiritual, a sensory experience…How does it strike you before the intelectual kicks in?
one women says his paintings seem like restrained passion
the speaker says he was a very passionate person, a great tango dancer, and she says the women’s perception is correct about the paintings