Introduction

from Piet Mondrian - Richard Neutra - J. Van Evera Bailey - Jan de Graaff

Jan de Graaff collector and Mondrian

This painting is one of the three large-format canvases that Mondrian made between 1936 and 1939, canvases that have very similar characteristics. In the specific case we can consider an evolution of the other two, which are dominated by a composition of black lines on a white background, with a small red area on the lower side: (B269) Composition en blanc, noir et rouge, 1936 and (B292) Composition with Red, 1939. (1, 2) In the first version of (B285) Composition of red and white: nom I, a large red plane appears almost in the center of the composition, cut by a horizontal line. (3) Mondrian began working on this painting in 1938 while he was in Paris, the fear of the imminent war conflict pushes him to move to London on 21 September 1938. Here he resumes his artistic path and completes the work in its first version. A few months later, in May 1939, the work was exhibited at the Guggenheim June gallery, a gallery that Peggy Guggenheim had opened in 1938 which was followed by the project to open a modern art museum in London together with Herbert Read as director. An idea then abandoned when Peggy returned to Paris in the 1940s. The catalog of this exhibition, with a preface by Kandinsky, was published in the London Bulletin no. 14 where the work (B292) Composition with Red, 1939 was reproduced even if not exhibited. While Mondrian’s fame had crossed almost the whole of Europe and crossed the Atlantic, in Paris he was forced to fill out an embarrassing questionnaire (4a) to participate in the exhibition “Réalités nouvelles, L’art inobjectif depuis 1910” (a precursor of what since 1946 will be the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles). For this occasion he sends three works, including (B285) Composition of red and white: nom I, with a letter dated April 28, 1939 in which he also indicates the value: for B285, 15,000 French Francs. (4b) The exhibition will take place at the Galerie Charpentier from 30 June to 15 July 1939. (5)