Mondrian Building

Mondrian Building
Building in Austin, Tx
image: lizardkingdom.org
Piet Mondrian (Dutch, 1872-1944)

While not art per say, I find people's take on art fascinating. Mondrian has never been one of my favorites, though the geometry of his work is quite soothing. I've seen many Mondrian paintings in person and the one thing you expect (or at least I have before seeing one) is that everything about them is exact, squared and picture perfect. Alas, this is not true. You can see a painterliness in his work, the lines, while always straight, have fuzzy edges, and the application of color is not uniform. This actually makes me happy, since, from a distance the paintings look sleek, and I actually find this a bit dull. His work doesn't age well, the solidity of the structure of the lines breaks down when you see that the paint is fading and cracking.

Instead of showing an actual painting (since the digital images surely don't represent what you would see in person, though may be more true to some original intentions) I discovered this house. What was surely an incredibly pedestrian house to start has been given and interest by someone's choice to share a bit of Mondrian. There is no shortage commercialization and application of Mondrian to material objects and products.

A Mondrian at MoMA

still life with fruit

Balthasar van der Ast (Dutch, 1593/1594 - 1657)
Still Life with Fruit and Flowers, c.1620-21
oil on panel
40x70 cm.
Rijksmuseum Amsterdam
Object number: SK-A-2152

Specialized in still lifes of flowers and fruit. While many a Dutch still life was produced in the 17th century, I continue to find individual works that I really enjoy. The width of this painting and the way the artist has spread his objects along the time beyond the cluster of the plate of fruit increases its interest.

More work by van der Ast

The Corn Poppy

The Corn Poppy, c.1919
Kees van Dongen (Dutch, 1877-1966)
oil on canvas
21 1/2 x 18 in
Collection: MFA Houston
image: http://www.artchive.com/artchive/D/dongen/corn_poppy.jpg.html

Sorry I've been mia for a bit of time. I was off on a 10 day road trip to Austin for a wedding and then was a bit too beat upon my return to a new job to get myself up and running. Hopefully today we'll start a good solid upkeep to this blog.

We got to see a bit of art (and a respite from the heat) on our road trip to Texas, and this was one of my favorite paintings at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. A museum trip is always worthwhile if i discover a new work or artist, and happily van Dongen and The Corn Poppy fit both categories.

Leo Belgicus

Map of S&N Netherlands "Leo Belgicus"
1617/1622?
Pieter Van der Keere (1570/71-1630)


I discovered this great 17th c. map in an exhibition catalog of Dutch Maritime paintings from the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England. While maps were produced for use, they are also a gorgeous art form (and a common collector's item).

Van den Keere was a highly skilled and prolific engraver in Amsterdam. This is a map of the Seventeen Provinces of the Low Countries, which was depicted in the form of a lion, "Leo Belgicus" due to the shape of the coastline and the commonality of the use of the lion in many of the provinces coats of arms.