The Classic Mondrian in Neo-Calvinist View: The Watson Gordon Lecture 2017

In this book, Joseph Masheck re-examines the spiritual in Mondrian's art and proposes a parallel between the equilibrium found in his paintings and his writings on theological justification. The artist's Calvinist Christianity is considered in respect to the balanced, asymmetrical works of his 'classic' phase of the 1920s and 1930s, and potential parallels with the writings of an important Dutch theologian of the Neo-Calvinist movement are explored. Finally, the author follows Mondrian's classic phase into the 1930s and beyond, in this extraordinary and inspiring reassessment of one of the fathers of abstract art.

Joseph Masheck is Professor Emeritus of Art History at Hofstra University, New York. He was formerly Editor-in-chief of Artforum and has taught at Columbia and Harvard. Recent books include Texts on (Texts on) Art, 2nd ed. (New York: Rail Editions, 2011) and Adolf Loos: The Art of Architecture (London: I.B. Tauris, 2013).

Above image:

Piet Mondrian, Composition with Double Line and Yellow, 1932. c National Galleries of Scotland