1999 march 04

mondriaan

during my depressing journey to the netherlands, i did manage to scope out at least five museums.

reading the big fun gus the other day, i was reminded of the day i took the train to the hague, and walked several miles to the haags gemeentemuseum just to see the piet mondriaan retrospective. on the train i passed field after field full of tulips and remember thinking, "how clich�." ditto for the windmills. when i finally reached the hague, i was much more comfortable than i had been in amsterdam, maybe because it was quieter and there were no tourists to be seen. but i wasn't comfortable enough to try and find a bus to the museum, so i just took my map and headed out on foot. several blisters later, i arrived.

i had always rather liked his primary colored block paintings but i was blown away by mondriaan's entire body of work. to see the progression from his landscapes to cubist representations of same and finally to the color field works that led to his famous primary color blocks and lines was incredible, rather like seeing evolution itself all in one exhibit. and the little delicate paintings of flowers he did to pay the bills were so different than anything i had ever associated with him. i suppose i thought he was always just a color block guy, not imagining he had arrived there from a more circuitous route.

i missed the show by just a few weeks when it travelled to washington, dc, but they already had the book on sale at the national gallery. it was too heavy to buy and backpack around europe with but i was under no such constraints in the nation's capitol so i grabbed it. okay, to be perfectly honest, the mama grabbed it for me as i was a little hesitant to spend the $75.00 they wanted. i'm glad she did though, because it is a tangible reminder of one of the really good days in the netherlands.

primarily, claire