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Published in June 1991 by the italian magazine L'Architettura, this short essay (in italian and english) was the first text Sciam had put together after four years of study of Mondrian's Broadway Boogie Woogie.
Prof. Bruno Zevi (director of L'Architettura) was so enthusiastic about the method Sciam had adopted (a pure visual analysis) that he suggested to title the essay "Saper Vedere Mondrian - How to see Mondrian".
The essay was sent to museums and scholars. Some of them reacted. Among those were Michel Seuphor (colleague and good friend of Mondrian, an artist, poet and art theorist himself), Giulio Carlo Argan (one of the most important italian art critic and art historian), Joop M. Joosten (co-author - with Robert Welsh - of Mondrian most accurate catalogue raisonneé), Carel Blotkamp (former art professor at Utrecht University), Italo Tomassoni (art critic who wrote himself an essay on Mondrian).
Others, such as, for istance, Mr. Hans Janssen (chief curator at The Hague Gemeentemuseum) deliberately ignored Sciam's contribution.
Sciam thought that the museum which owns Broadway Boogie Woogie (NYC MoMA), would be interested in learning something new about the painting and therefore sent his essay to Mrs. Deborah Schwarz (at the time Mrs. Schwarz was in charge of MoMA education department). No answer ever came.
In view of a major exhibition which was planned for the end of 1995 at The Haags Gemeentemuseum, the Washington National Gallery of Art and the New York City MoMA, Sciam has offered his explanation of Broadway Boogie Woogie. Of course, the curators did not even consider the point of view of an artist. Especially if this could throw a shadow on their own doing.
As of March 2010 Sciam's book "Piet Mondrian, An Explanation of the Work" has been finally added to the Online Catalog of the NYC MoMA Library, Archives and Study Centers.
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