1941, Piet Mondrian, New York City 2 -- San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
From the museum label: Left unfinished when Mondrian died in 1944, this painting provides evidence of the artist's working process at the end of his career. After arriving in New York from Europe in 1940, Mondrian began laying out his paintings using strips of colored laminate to stand in for the lines he would later paint by hand. This canvas's numerous thumbtack holes are the result of compositional revisions, revealing the dynamic decision-making behind a seemingly rational arrangement of colors and forms. Although incomplete, the picture appears to be very near its final state, as Mondrian had already begun to paint the lines that eventually would have replaced the tape.
1941, Piet Mondrian, New York City 2 -- San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
From the museum label: Left unfinished when Mondrian died in 1944, this painting provides evidence of the artist's working process at the end of his career. After arriving in New York from Europe in 1940, Mondrian began laying out his paintings using strips of colored laminate to stand in for the lines he would later paint by hand. This canvas's numerous thumbtack holes are the result of compositional revisions, revealing the dynamic decision-making behind a seemingly rational arrangement of colors and forms. Although incomplete, the picture appears to be very near its final state, as Mondrian had already begun to paint the lines that eventually would have replaced the tape.