200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, New York

I showed two works at the Brooklyn Museum in 1926.

In the late 1920s, when Piet Mondrian was living in Paris, his art as well as his unique studio on rue du Départ received attention in the United States. American visitors turned up increasingly often. One was the artist Katherine Dreier, the founder of the Société Anonyme (SA). She asked Mondrian to send in work for the SA’s 1926 International Exhibition of Modern Art. Held at the Brooklyn Museum, it was the first exhibition in the US to feature Mondrian’s work.

A press release from the Brooklyn Museum announcing the opening of The International Exhibition of Modern Art
A press release from the Brooklyn Museum announcing the opening of The International Exhibition of Modern Art
Clarification

Mondrian sent in Tableau I and Tableau II. Dreier renamed them Clarification I and Clarification II. She found these titles more appropriate and regarded the entire De Stijl movement, of which Mondrian was a leading figure, as “standing for clarification". She wrote,“Nowhere has such clarification been reached as in the paintings of Mondrian.”

Tableau I
Piet Mondrian / Tableau I / dated 1926
Tableau II
Piet Mondrian / Tableau II / dated 1926
Three great painters

In the catalogue accompanying the show, Dreier wrote, “Holland has produced three great painters who, through a logical expression of their own country, rose above it through the vigor of their personality – the first was Rembrandt, the second was Van Gogh, and the third is Mondrian.” For Mondrian, her words constituted an important acknowledgement of his status.

Current situation

The Brooklyn Museum has no Mondrians in its collection today.

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