Mondrian – Dalí: the monographic exhibition
Iconic exhibitions in the 20th century.

After his death in New York in 1944, Piet Mondrian was not immediately considered a great artist by the Netherlands. Yet his reputation grew in the decades following the Second World War to one of international stature.

Art historians and curators, supported by radio and television makers, did their utmost to make his art accessible to a broad public. In this, grateful use was made of Mondrian’s own statement about the path he had taken to reach abstraction.

Salvador Dalí, Mondrian’s colleague and rival, needed no explanation; the artist made smart use of the possibilities offered by television, so that an exhibition about his work was a guaranteed success with the public.

In this episode of the series ‘Iconic exhibitions in the 20th century’, art historian Carel Blotkamp explains that Mondrian’s development was not as logical and self-evident as is generally suggested. Philosopher Jan Bor points out that Mondrian’s paintings are always discussed in terms of (western) neo-platonism, yet his vision on the nature of reality is coloured by a different, non-western tradition of thought.

Both speakers profile Mondrian and Dalì in comparison with each other and their argumentation is supported with sources from the history of Dutch radio and television.

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