Description:

Piet Mondrian ALS Possibly Discussing His Neoplasticism Manifesto "Le Home, La Rue, La Cité"

A 1p autograph letter in French inscribed overall and signed by Dutch artist Piet Mondrian (born Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan) (1872-1944) as "P Mondrian" at lower right. Written in Paris, France on January 7, 1927 on a single leaf of cream paper. Expected wear including folds, a few minor closed tears found along the folds, light toning, and two scattered marks in red colored pencil, else near fine. 8.25" x 10.625." Provenance: Ex-Noel Goldblatt (ca. 1926-2003) of the famous Goldblatt's Department Store, to a prominent Los Angeles, California collector.

Piet Mondrian addressed this letter, with its lengthy postscript, to his friend and fellow artist Aimé Félix Del Marle (1889-1952). Between 1926-1927, Del Marle edited an extremely short-lived French-language arts journal called "Vouloir: Revue Mensuelle d'Esthétique Néo-plastique" [trans: "Want: Monthly Review of Neo-plastic Aesthetic"] (1924-1927).

Mondrian wrote Del Marle about a piece he was writing for "Vouloir," quite possibly his famous essay entitled "Le Home, La Rue, La Cité," [trans: "Home, Street, City."] Mondrian's piece discussing Neoplasticism would be published in issue No. 25 of "Vouloir" sometime around January 1927. In "Le Home, La Rue, La Cité," Mondrian articulated key tenets of Neoplasticism, and also differentiated it from other contemporary artistic movements like Cubism and Futurism. For these two reasons, this important essay can be viewed as a manifesto of sorts.

Mondrian wrote, translated in part, with untouched spelling and punctuation:

"In addition I really wanted to make the corrections for the special no. N.P. of Vouloir but I didn't find the time and I must say that it is a little outside of my experience…Thus I ask you to arrange it otherwise - I will wait to have the publication of Vouloir that you sent me from 24 Dec. but that is probably late…

I see in No. 24 of Vouloir: monthly review of neo-plastic aesthetic. That flatters me because it was me who coined the name neo-plasticism, but wouldn't it be better to put.. new aesthetic p. exc. because it will be difficult to completely follow neo-plastic ideas, especially in literature! For a review it is the same, I believe, to not limit itself too much!"

Del Marle had been the only significant French artist affiliated with the Italian-heavy Futurist School, but after first meeting Piet Mondrian in 1922, he became an enthusiastic follower of "De Stijl," or "The Style," the Dutch artistic movement co-founded by Mondrian. Neoplasticism as defined by Mondrian was to reduce or purify art to its essential elements of color, tone, and line.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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