Museum Ludwig Celebrates Piet Mondrian

Saturday, 08 December 2007 10:48

COLOGNE, GERMANY - Museum Ludwig presents a truly comprehensive Mondrian exhibition that charts his artistic developments right from his first paintings to the abstracts of his later years, on view through March 30, 2008. Above all, Piet Mondrian’s Neoplastic paintings number among the unmistakable icons of classical modernism.

Even when we have no concrete knowledge of the artist as a person, or of his work, the sight of these black and white rectangular compositions filled with the primary colours red, yellow and blue is nevertheless imprinted on our collective aesthetic consciousness - in a way that goes far beyond art. This is in no small part due to the constant use made of them by advertising.

Yet this abstract imagery was the outcome of a complex development that is far less known to the general public, and that came about under the influence of a diverse medley of artistic approaches at the turn of the 20th century. The exhibition in Cologne will follow Mondrian’s progress from his early work in the Impressionist and Cubist styles, to the founding of De Stijl in 1917 (together with Theo van Doesburg), to his renowned Neoplasticism.

For this, one of the world’s largest and foremost Mondrian collections will be coming from the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague to Cologne. Museum Ludwig, which is home to the world’s third-largest Picasso collection, will return the favour and send its celebrated collection to the Gemeentemuseum, so that a large survey exhibition of Pablo Picasso’s works can be mounted at the same time in The Hague.

The collection of the Museum Ludwig comprises the most important stages and positions in the development of 20th century art and contemporary art. Roy Lichtenstein's "Maybe", Andy Warhol's "Brillo Boxes" and George Segal's "Restaurant Window", all icons of American Pop Art, had just been completed when in 1969 they were included as loans in the collection of the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum. The works came from Peter and Irene Ludwig who have built up the biggest collection of Pop Art outside the USA.