Rethink Reframing: Applying Mondrian’s Philosophies to Conservation Decisions

Sachi Laumas

Artist Piet Mondrian’s distinctive style and artistic vocabulary expand beyond the stark blocks of white and harsh black lines that mark his canvases. His spiritual philosophy is reflected in the material painting itself, but also the frames he created to encase his work. Mondrian’s approach to painting combined with his philosophical beliefs influenced the role of art in society under the Neoplasticism movement of the 1910s and 1920s. One such Neoplastic painting from 1922, “Composition with Blue, Black, Red and Yellow,” found a home in the Harvard Art Museums at the beginning of this century. The framing and materiality of this painting in particular prompt questions regarding the importance of art presentation and how contemporary art conservators ought to preserve Mondrian’s original vision. 

The composition of this work is simultaneously visually contained and expansive: it consists of a large central white (non-colored) plane surrounded by rectangles of blue, red, and yellow of varying sizes. Thick, glossy black lines harshly delineate the colored planes, but stop short of the canvas’s edge. The canvas is mounted to a wooden set-back strip frame that projects the canvas forward into space, a departure from the traditional diagonal bevel frame typically used for ‘fine art.’ It is a rare example of a completely unrestored Mondrian—complete with cracking and discoloration in the central white plane and a buildup of residue coating the surface thus making it an ideal object of technical study for conservators and scholars.¹ Many other Mondrian paintings were treated with harsh chemicals and reframed in the 1960s and 1970s in the name of preservation, but this ultimately damaged the canvas surface and often involved removing the original frame.² I will examine the current literature on Mondrian’s use of the picture frame and how his use of framing aligns with his idea of art as a means of reinforcing moral values and moving society towards a utopia. Examining the framing and materiality of  “Composition with Blue, Black, Yellow, and Red” through the lens of Mondrian’s philosophy and theoretical writing reveals the importance of situating paintings in their ideological context when making conservation decisions and the danger of not doing so.

Early in his career, Mondrian worked in the midst and aftermath of the First World War. As the world grappled with the absolute destruction and violence that the war brought to Europe, Mondrian and his contemporaries searched for a way to revolutionize art to fit the needs of a new world. The Modernist style and the deconstruction of naturalism in art grew increasingly popular, with Mondrian acting as a trailblazer and key figure of the De Stijl movement.³ De Stijl, another name for the Neoplasticism movement, gained traction in the late 1910s and advocated for the total abstraction of art through the use of a very limited shape and color palette.⁴ The new Dutch-based movement fit Mondrian’s exclusive use of primary colors and lines or rectangles in his Neoplastic art.⁵ The movement proposed that this deconstruction of art had the power to bestow a set of moral values on the viewer and move society toward a spiritual utopia.⁶ Though it built on the groundbreaking ideas of Impressionism in the late twentieth century, Neoplasticism was a radical departure from previous conceptions of art and an attempt to grapple with the violence and pain of the First World War caused by increased technological innovation.⁷

Mondrian cemented the principles and tenets of the art style in his 1926 essay titled “General Principles of Neo-Plasticism,” which outlines the aesthetic rules and goals of the movement.⁸ According to Mondrian, the modernization of society and life in the early twentieth century called for increased spiritual purity in all aspects of life, including art. This included eliminating staticism in his compositions and achieving a dynamic equilibrium instead. But his reduced artistic language and attempt at clarity extended beyond the borders of his canvas. Mondrian abhorred the traditional diagonal bevel frame that emerges forward from the surface of the painting.⁹ Instead, he used set-back strip frames for his paintings, as is the case for “Composition with Blue, Black, Red and Yellow,” to encourage a rethinking of the role of the frame.

But his reduced artistic language and attempt at clarity extended beyond the borders of his canvas.

“Composition with Blue, Black, Yellow, and Red” embodies the De Stijl principles established above through its visual composition as well as its materiality. The off-center position of the central white square that pushes the colored planes to the edges of the canvas puts the viewer off-balance when initially studying the artwork (fig. 1). The organization of planes on the canvas achieves a dynamic equilibrium through the placement of the colored squares, some of which are contained within the harsh black lines (such as the blue rectangle) and some of which encroach on the lines (such as the yellow rectangle). This creates a sense of conflict and push and pull between the lines and the colored planes, which removes stillness from the composition and erases any static balance. The lack of symmetry and repetition in the composition also contributes to this idea of dynamic equilibrium, as emphasized in Mondrian’s fifth principle of Neoplasticism.¹⁰ 

Another embodiment of his thinking in this painting is the fact that the black lines do not reach the edges of the canvas. The lines stop just short of the edges next to the red and blue rectangles, giving the impression that the red and blue colored planes extend past the borders of the artwork. This idea of an artwork extending past the borders of the canvas connects to Mondrian’s concept of art as a way to create social change past the canvas’s physical constraints. 

Mondrian sought the expansion of the painting past the borders of the canvas during this period of his career, made clear by the thick black lines that allow the blue and red colored planes to escape and spill over onto the sides. But the framing of this painting is also key to reinforcing his philosophy of expansion in art. The set-back strip frame used for this painting allows the canvas to end on its own terms without the artificial borders of a traditional frame.¹¹ It introduces and welcomes the painting into our physical world, making the painting more material and real. Mondrian chased after the idea of giving his paintings the most “real existence” possible because he wanted them to inflict social change on the real world.¹² The set-back frame also removes the shadow and artificial depth that light and traditional frames create.¹³ The artificial three-dimensionality of the painting in the traditional frame moves the painting even further from our existence and makes it part of an illusion world instead of our current reality.¹⁴ To push back against this creation of an illusion world, Mondrian sought planarity in his work. He achieved this through the set-back strip frame that thrusts the artwork forward into realness.

Comparing “Composition with Blue, Black, Yellow, and Red” in the Harvard Art Museums to “Composition No. III” in the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C. illustrates the importance of framing in Mondrian’s mission of spiritual progress and ‘real’ art. It also demonstrates the key role that curators and museums play in prolonging and honoring Mondrian’s thinking. The former painting is displayed to viewers in its original frame with no barriers between the painting and the onlooker. On the other hand, “Composition No. III” is displayed with an additional pane of glass and a wooden box surrounding it (fig 2).

Though the Phillips Collection attempted to maintain the integrity of the work by displaying it in its original frame, they still disturbed Mondrian’s mission by encasing the painting behind a layer of glass and surrounding it with a wooden frame that comes out of the painting. This layer of glass traps the composition in an artificially created boundary and does not let the planes of color extend out into the space around them. It limits the ‘realness’ of the painting’s existence by relegating it to an illusion world of art that is protected and shut behind glass.¹⁵ The Harvard Art Museums’ approach allows the Mondrian painting to extend into the viewer’s world and space by not implementing additional layers of protection. The glass on top of “Composition No. III” also disrupts the planarity and two-dimensionality of the work, with the shadow of the glass on the painting creating the artificial three-dimensionality and depth that Mondrian was vehemently against. Juxtaposing these paintings reveals the importance of display decisions and curation in ensuring that Mondrian’s philosophy is carried on through his artwork past his death.

Curation and display decisions are more complex than selecting the display case for an object. Whether to conserve the Mondrian painting in the Harvard Art Museums similarly raises questions of preserving Mondrian’s original philosophy or prioritizing the viewer experience. “Composition with Blue, Black, Yellow, and Red” remains completely untouched by conservators, meaning it has aged with time since its creation. This is visually evident through the areas of discoloration and many cracks weaving across the surface of the central white plane.In cases such as this painting, conservators must consider the impact that these clear imperfections have on the viewer’s experience, but also whether they are compatible with the artist’s original intention. In the case of Mondrian, it may initially appear that visual imperfections are incompatible with his framework demanding a limited color palette and geometrically simple compositions. However, considering his Neoplastic idea of dynamic equilibrium and hatred of static art, conservators may view Mondrian’s original intentions differently. The purpose of the composition of this painting and many of his other works is to achieve dynamism and constant movement. He did not want his works to stand still in time, which is why he crafted off-balance and asymmetrical compositions. Conserving the work and attempting to restore it to its original appearance would be an erasure of the life of the work and the movement happening in it. Conservators trying to ‘fix’ the painting to restore it to a past iteration of what it looked like would betray Mondrian’s concept of dynamism. While preserving artwork means treating it as a static object that has a ‘correct’ form, Mondrian’s philosophy and rules of Neoplasticism would not condone fixing or restoring his artwork. This is precisely why the Mondrian painting in the Harvard Art Museums is unique: it is a true embodiment of his philosophy and intentions. Its original frame, form of display, and lack of conservation align with the principles and aesthetics of Neoplasticism.

Curation and display decisions are more complex than selecting the display case for an object.

Using Mondrian’s philosophical writings and art theory as a lens through which to analyze the conservation and display decisions reveals the best way to honor Mondrian’s original intentions for his work. Art conservation is an ever-evolving field with a framework that is constantly changing on a case-by-case basis—in this case, Mondrian’s theoretical writing can inform the conservation process and allow for the most holistic and informed decisions. More broadly, conservators ought to consider both the historical and philosophical context when deciding how or if to conserve a work. These philosophical conditions have the power to fundamentally change how a work of art such as “Composition with Blue, Black, Yellow, and Red” is studied.

1. “Mondrian Painting Is First for Busch-Reisinger,” Harvard Gazette, January 20, 2000, https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2000/01/mondrian-painting-is-first-for-busch-reisinger/. ↩︎
2. Ibid. ↩︎
3. TANG Ke-bing, “The Lack of the Frame and Transformations of the Concept of Art,” Sino-US English Teaching 12, no. 7 (2015), https://doi.org/10.17265/1539-8072/2015.07.004. ↩︎
4. Gregory Schufreider, “Iconoclastic Images,” The Yearbook of Comparative Literature 56, no. 1 (2010): 24–63, https://doi.org/10.1353/cgl.2010.0005. ↩︎
5. Ali Fallahzadeh and Geneviève Gamache, “Equilibrium and Rhythm in Piet Mondrian’s Neo-Plastic Compositions,” Cogent Arts & Humanities 5, no. 1 (2018), https://doi.org/10.1080/23311983.2018.1525858. ↩︎
6. Schufreider, “Iconoclastic Images.” ↩︎
7. Fallahzadeh and Gamache, “Equilibrium.” ↩︎
8. Ibid. ↩︎
9. Schufreider, “Iconoclastic Images.”  ↩︎
10. Fallahzadeh and Gamache, “Equilibrium.” ↩︎
11. Ke-bing, “Lack of the Frame.” ↩︎
12. Andre Masson et al., “Eleven Europeans in America,” The Bulletin of the Museum of Modern Art 13, no. 4/5 (1946): 2, https://doi.org/10.2307/4058114. ↩︎
13. Schufreider, “Iconoclastic Images.”  ↩︎
14. Ibid. ↩︎
15. Ibid. ↩︎