These pages inform about the studies Michael Sciam has done on Piet Mondrian's oeuvre during the past thirty-five years.i >
Sciam is not an art historian, a critic nor a curator of events. He is an artist; painter, photographer and art theorist.i >
This is what Sciam says about his studies on Mondrian.i >

The core of Mondrian's new vision of reality unveils through pure relationships of forms and colors.
Believing in a social and didactic role of art, the artist dedicated his oeuvre "aux hommes futures" (to future mankind).
In order to explain his work Mondrian wrote some essays.
When the artist returned to Paris in February 1919, the magazine De Stijl regularly published monthly sequels to his essays.
Eager to make his ideas known to the French, Mondrian had been writing more than he painted for over three years. He got help for the translation and publishes in 1920 at his own expense a brochure entitled “The Neoplasticism” that however did not arouse the hoped for interest also because of a rather clumsy translation. The publication will also be ignored by art critics.

These pages provide information about the interest shown by scholars, museums, and the public in Sciam's studies.
Others, more concerned with themselves, ignored Sciam's contribution. The most relevant case is that of the Haags Gemeentemuseum, now Kunstmuseum Den Haag. More on this here.i >

 

art explained by an artist

The following links show the results of Sciam's studies:

First essay on Broadway Boogie Woogie (1987-1990). Published on the monthly magazine L'Architettura (September 1991). i >

"An Explanation of Piet Mondrian's Oeuvre" (1987-2006). Book published by Associazione Culturale Nuova (2006).i >

A web site (www.pietmondrian.eu) presenting a digital format of the 2006 revised book (English, German, Italian texts). >

"Mondrian Sehen Lernen" : a sequence of 12 pdf tables explain Mondrian's oeuvre (German text). >

"Saper vedere Mondrian" : a sequence of 12 pdf tables explain Mondrian's oeuvre (Italian text). >

"How to See Mondrian" : This is an essay (English text) in between a book and a virtual exhibition. It consists of six plates and sixteen pages. The six plates can be printed and mounted on a wall to visualize an evolutionary process within Mondrian’s complete oeuvre which offers a sort of exhibition route similar to that of an actual show. It consists of:
Five plates (297×880 mm. each) that present anl overview on Mondrian’s oeuvre:   >
Sixteen pages (297×880 mm. each) which analyze the entire oeuvre in detail.  >
One plate (297×1320 mm.) that summarizes Mondrian’s oeuvre:   >
The first download may take a longer time.
We suggest to print the plates and the pages at any suitable printing center.

who welcomed these studies

Michel Seuphor : an artist and poet; a good friend of Mondrian; they worked together in Paris during the 1920's. Seuphor wrote the first biography of the Dutch master in 1956.o>

Bruno Zevi:an architect, critic and professor in history of architecture; a good friend of Frank Lloyd Wright.o>

Giulio Carlo Argan : an art historian and professor of modern art at Rome University.o>

Joop M. Joosten : an art historian; research curator emeritus at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, co-author with Robert Welsh of the Catalogue Raisonée of Mondrian's oeuvre. Mr. Joosten wrote to Sciam: "I think the way you approach Mondrian's work is a substantial contribution to the exploration of the significance of Mondrian's work". >

Prof. Dr. Carel Blotkamp showed appreciation for Sciam's analisys of Broadway Boogie Woogie and asked for the book Sciam had just completed on Mondrian's entire oeuvre. >

Italo Tomassoni : an art historian and critic, he has published an essay on Piet Mondrian in 1968. >

Jolanda Nigro-Covre : an art historian who wrote a book on Piet Mondrian and De Stijl (1990) among other books on modern art.o>

Professor Luigi Paolo Finizio, who has recently published the book "Mondrian Il Chiaroveggente", commented on Sciam's studies. >

Mathjis Jonker from the Dutch Cultural Institute in Rome found very interesting the comparison between two frescoes by Raffaello Sanzio ad Broadway Boogie Woogie by Mondrian Michael Sciam has submitted to him. >

Ute Bart >

Wietse Coppes, curator for Mondrian and De Stijl Archives at the Netherlands Institute for Art History in Den Haag examined the material Sciam has sent to him and was so kind to answer. > He has received a paper format of Sciam's studies on Mondrian.

In April 2009 Sciam has sent an extract of his studies on Mondrian to the Fondazione Filiberto Menna in Salerno (Italy). It took a good while for them to answer but it has finally happened. > Sciam has had Filiberto Menna as professor at Rome University. Prof. Menna wrote a beautiful book on Piet Mondrian originally titled "Mondrian Cultura e Poesia". > Sciam attended a course called "Istituzioni di Storia dell'Arte" held by Prof. Menna and passed the examination discussing Mondrian. Unfortunately prof. Menna died at the age of 62 before he could see the results of Sciam's studies on Mondrian.

Giorgio Bonomi Professor of philosophy and art critic based in Perugia (Italy) >

Others were thankful but did not say much. Visitors to the above listed web pages found them very interesting and asked for paper copies; the same was with people attending seminars and lectures Sciam has given throughout the years in Italy, Germany, United States, Israel and Switzerland.

 

a selection from audience comments

Sciam has received positive and sometime enthusiastic response from people he was able to meet during seminars and lectures he has held in Germany, Italy, USA and Israel. Here please find some comments from unknown people around the world showing interest and appreciation after visiting some of the above listed web pages. >

 

the acknowledgement of some museums

The Stedelijksmuseum, Amsterdam NL, has included Sciam's studies in their library. o> >

The National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, has included a documentation of Sciam's studies in their digital archive.o> oo

NYC MoMA has included Sciam's "An Explanation of Piet Mondrian's Oeuvre" (paper format) in their Library and Study Center.o>

The Kunsthaus Zürich has included Sciam's "Mondrian Sehen Lernen" (paper format) in their public art library. o>

So did the Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo NL.i >

Sciam had begun a promising co-operation with the Mondriaanhuis in Amersfoort which was unfortunately interrupted by the new management after receiving precise instructions from Den Haag in order to ignore Sciam's studies. >

Die Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin and the Galleria d'Arte Moderna in Rome have thankfully acknowledged receipt of Sciam's "How to See Mondrian" in the paper format.

 

and the unusual reaction of some directors and curators

In 2022 Kunstmuseum Den Haag, Fondation Beyeler and Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen have jointly organized an exhibition on Piet Mondrian. The exhibition catalog shows some progress in the way directors and curators approach Mondrian’s oeuvre.
The progress is based on some suggestions Sciam has been unsuccessfully trying to convey to them since 2006. How strange that these gentlemen do not mention the source of "their findings.” >

Any intellectually honest person would have acknowledged Sciam's suggestions which are not just his personal opinions but visual facts that can be objectively verified. It must be difficult to have an unknown artist showing directors and curators how to see Mondrian.
This seems to be the way how they prefer to see Mondrian. > >

The director at the Mondriaanhuis in Amersfoort as well as museum Wiesbaden, who had a Mondrian exhibition organized together with the Haags Gemeentemuseum, are not interested in Sciam's contribution.

Kaiser Wilhelm Museum Krefeld, which has some paintings by Mondrian in its collection, never answered either.
This museum underwent a judiciary cause involving a supposedly misappropriation of four Mondrian's paintings.

If we still have museums such as the NYC MoMA suggesting that Broadway Boogie Woogie is a depiction of "New York City traffic and Broadway lights", I am afraid we still have a long way to go before the public will be given a chance to understand what Piet Mondrian has really done.

Mondrian wrote: "A true critic can, simply by drawing upon the depths of his humanity and observing with purity, write about the new forms of art even without a knowledge of the working technique (...). But a true critic is somewhat rare."

 

Why does this happen? Christian Grote asked Michael Sciam:

MS: I think that there are many reasons.. The first which comes to my mind is that museums are today managed like business companies. A museum director is often someone whose main function is to improve the number of visitors and increase the turnover of the company he works for. It is just enough to make visitors believe they have been part of an event everybody is talking about.
Mr. Paolo Colombo, who managed the MAXXI in Rome, said once to me: "it does not matter whether the public really understands."

 

CG: I see but, nevertheless, people who manage museums have studied art history at universities.

MS: This is correct and this is often the reason why they know everything about dates and letters but tend to show limited abilities when it comes to see and explain painting for what painting is and that is to say the ability to express nature and life through meaningful relationship of forms and colors. For many of them forms and colors are just not enough.
I believe, instead, that when masterly used such as in the case of Mondrian, forms and colors can convey a great deal of content.
Mr. Hans Janssen, who worked for the Haags Gemeentemuseum (Kunstmuseum Den Haag), said he was not interested in my studies because he found them "formalistic". I have asked what did Mondrian do thoughout his entire life if not translating life into forms and colors. Unfortunately, no answer ever came.

You see, these people have long and diligently studied art at school and after winning a government context, now sit in comfortable armchairs paid with public money. They probably believe to be a reliable source of knowledge. These academicians surely know every single date and each letter Mondrian wrote and have quite often used these letters in the attempt to explain his paintings. Writing about two fully abstract compositions Mondrian painted in 1919 and making reference to a letter the artist wrote to van Doesburg, Mr. Hans Janssen still talks about a morning and an evening sky in a 2005 catalogue for a show at the Albertina Museum in Vienna.

 

CG: And you think the fact that they are paid with public money prevents them to be cultured people?

 

MS: Cultured people? We should first agree about the meaining of "cultured". It takes more than a degree to become a cultured person.

Many directors and curators today do not perceive culture and especially art as a mean to open minds and elevate thought. They couldn't care less about spiritual issues. Their enthusiasm is for glamour and revenues. It is a sort of virus which has contaminated today's society. You find the same level of greedy superficiality in politics, finance, media etc. Money, private interests and the cult of personality prevail today on the common interest, on a social level and on the progress of culture.

Paul Cézanne said: "Art is like a religion, its goal is to elevate thought". Light-years away from today's current mentality.

"Until man will be dominated by his fleeting individuality instead of cultivating his essence, which is universal, he will look for and find his own person only." (Mondrian).

Art shows that we are all parts of a much wider "design" where each individuality is no longer so important as some people believe.
Each artist adds a single ring to an endless chain we are all part of. For the sake of art and progress of thought we should be able to share our findings and knowledge. When I sent out the results of my studies to Seuphor, Zevi, Joosten, Argan, Nigro-Covre, Tomassoni, Blotkamp, they reacted expressing gratitude and sharing their view on them. Unfortunately these kind of great personalities are no longer available on today's public scene.

 

CG: Okay, but you have to deal with what is available today. Moreover, these people have all the visibility they want and the power of the media whereas you have "only" the power of ideas... And in this kind of reality If you do not get along with them you are out of the games..

 

MS: You have used the right word: "games". That's what you have to face when you approach today's official art establishment. I am not the first and probably not the last one who has to deal with such devious manners. Think of all the great artists who found obstacles on their way. Albert Einstein said: "Great spirits always encountered encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds".

You know what most disturb me about all of this? Not only I have to improve their work but I also have to waste my time explaining to them the reasons why I have to do that. I have to show them where they have missed the point.

 

CG: Well, they were probably not always able to..

 

MS: Yes and they seem to forget that it could be worth every once in a while listening to what some artists have to say about art. After all Piet Mondrian was an artist, not an art historian, a critic or a curator. Why should they use their media power to censor the valuable contribution of an independent artist and thereby prevent the public from improving their knowledge about art? Mondrian would not approve.

 

CG: Well, let me tell you.. It is rather naive of you to hope that these gentlemen will recognize the value of your work and thereby implicitly admit their own shortcomings. They do not share the passion you have when you talk about Mondrian and art in general. They are not artists. They can be defined as employees dealing with cultural issues. They cannot fully understand what art is all about.
At the end they are not different from their predecessors who refused Piet Mondrian access to the Prix of Rome.
However, time plays in your favour... As usual with real artists.
You paint.. Don't you? And you write as well about art... And your writings disturb the establishment..

At your place I would only be proud of myself..

 

 

Dear Michael,

I have read with great interest your explanations, especially the sections where you relate abstract art to our daily life. Quite unusual..

As to the absence of recognition on the part of the establishment, I recall a statement by a countryman of yours: "Indifference is cowardice, ineptitude, parasitism. The indifferent is the dead weight of history." (Antonio Gramsci).

Best

Stefan Meister, Bern

 

 

news

The Discovery of Mondrian, Gemeentemuseum, The Hague (now Kunstmuseum Den Haag), review: "How much branding can a dead man take? It's a total disgrace."o>

Mr. Corné Quartel > has asked Michael Sciam permission > to use some images for his article on Share's International magazine. >

Here is Sciam's answer > and permission. >

 

 

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