Complete Mondrian (Gebundene Ausgabe)

However, Mondrian painted manically compulsively out of a fear against the chaos of the world daily. Although it did not feed him, he could not quit this activity; he continued to work, got pneumonia in that cold New York winter [slaving away in the unheated studio for three days non-stop] and died before he could finish his "Victory Broadway Boogie Woogie" painting. A tribute to the city of New York which on the other hand almost let him starve, the money at least did not reach for having the heating on.

Nevertheless he loved this town full of jazz, dance and boogie-woogie (he liked to dance there). His paintings are telling a tribute to this pulsating, dynamic Big Apple.

Burst from the desert of the Dutch landscape, saved in the liver Paris, escaping the racial world of the Nazis - like many other artists did. While however painters like Max Beckmann were getting a university-chair offered in New York, this luck did not fall to Mondrian.

With an astonishing optimistic colour joy he managed to compensate the real sadness. His last work, "Broadway Boogie Woogie" almost works like a city centre Map: Horizontally numbered the Avenues streets -- only the slash of Broadway breaking out of this grid is missing vertical.

One is filled with consternation occasionally, out of which suffering art can arise.

Mondrian may have been assessed compulsion neurotically. However, if he could set such harmonious works against this hell, he is a winner, not a looser.

His compositions against the chaos of the world are fascinating forever. The effort had to be done - though it has been a hard life for Mondrian...

Und dennoch, eine Hommage an eine pulsierende, dynamische, voller Rhythmen steckende Stadt, voller Jazz, Tanz und Boogie Woogie. Aufgebrochen aus der Öde der holländischen Landschaft, hineingerettet ins lebendigere Paris, vor den Nazis geflüchtet wie viele andere Künstler Richtung USA. Während jedoch Maler wie Max Beckmann in New York eine Professur angeboten bekamen, wurde Mondrian dieses Glück nicht zuteil.

Umso erstaunlicher, mit welch optimistischer Farbenfreude es ihm gelang, die reale Tristesse zu kompensieren. Sein letztes Werk, der Broadway Boogie Woogie - es wirkt fast wie eine City Map: senkrecht die Avenuen, waagerecht die durchnummerierten Straßen - es fehlt einzig der Schrägstrich des aus diesem Raster ausbrechenden Broadway.

Zuweilen ist man bestürzt, aus welchem Leiden Kunst erwächst. Mondrian mag zwangsneurotisch veranlagt gewesen sein - aber wenn er dieser Hölle solch harmonische Werke entgegensetzen konnte - fasziniert nicht dann die Beschäftigung mit ihm, seinem Leben, seinen Kompositionen gegen die Ungeordnetheit der Welt?