Levi on Mondrian

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Mondrian as Metaphysician

Author(s): Albert William LeviSource: The Kenyon Review, Vol. 13, No. 3 (Summer, 1951), pp. 385-393Published by: Kenyon College

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Albert WilliamLevi

MONDRIANAS METAPHYSICIAN

A RT, he said,should not follow the intuitions relating totlour life in time, but only those intuitions relating to

true reality. Come then, oh metaphysician,since through anunquestionablegraceyour inner eye and outward hand wereso submissiveto the lessonsof the real, and let your deadmouth drop its crumbs.

Abstract art ... is consciousof the fact that reality revealsitself by substantial, palpable forms, accumulated or dis-

persed in empty space. He said it with quaint Dutch seri-ousness, n the stubbornessof a hard-won knowledge. Somecertaintiesareborn of the arrogantvision of the single way.But not his. In the beginning, he had too much respect forthe integrity of the objects of painting not to have anunlimited openness to them all. In this early openness towind and rain and climate was love of natural form. Atthis moment natural form was the daemon in which heparticipated.

But it happensthat the lyrical love of particularlyflow-ered in an intellectual love of forms beyond life and beyondparticularity. His vision fell into the hands of the sereneGreek and new discovery made him friend and companionof Plato. There is something touching in his confidences.It took me a long time, he said,to discoverthat particularitiesof form and natural color evoke subjective states of feelingwhich obscure pure reality. The appearance of naturalforms changes,but reality remains constant. To plastic artwe must turn for the re-disclosureof what the philosophyofthe ancients acknowledged:that time and subjective vision







386 MONDRIAN

veil truth, that in the abolition of all particular form liestruth, and that reality is at bottom form and space.

And yet what superb daring. What superb and hopelessdaringto grope for the abolition of all particular form. Tognaw like the trapped animal at the steel jacket of the sensesand to hope by plastic persuasion o escape the predicaments

of sensation. This is not to deny that he was a magician.Form and Space: It is not as though Mondrian had spentsleeplessnights over the Timaeus. It is not as though spacewas the eternal receptacle into which forms dive and sportlike Dolphins undulating in a sunny sea. It is the artistwho through a free creative act makes the dimensions-even the waves upon his sea. The rectangle of the pictureplane becomes the sea, becomes the whole world of potenti-ality for space determination. As natural object the canvashas only two dimensions. If the artists were to simplyexpress space this would indeed be a sorrow. But since hisis the power to determinespace, he may proceed with lightheart in his joyful science. (The action of plastic art is notspace expression but complete space-determination. Spacedetermination is here understood as dividing empty spaceinto unequal but equivalent parts by means of forms orlines.)

To determinespacethe artist must have some of the inno-cent simplicity of God at the moment of the creation. His

forms must be equivalentto his space. He must at the sametime be a masterof the art of relationship. Relationshipisa sense like vision. It is a holding together of many thingsso that they are felt at the same time together in their sepa-ratenessand separate n their togetherness. All this withoutthe senseof tension which explodesthe world in fragmentsthough of course not without tension. It is through thesenseof relationshipthat the painter determinesspace. Forwhat can this determinationhave to do with reality unlessits source is the desire for equilibrium? ( I mean realityhere in Mondrian'smeaning - not the ultimate facts of







ALBERT WILLIAM LEVI 387

cosmology or the events of life but the plastic manipulationof forms.)

The sense of relationshipfinds its mode of expressionasthe painter contemplates the blank two-dimensionality ofthe canvas. For, this space is given but not determined asstructural and it is determined and not given by vision and

through imagination. The painter too inhabits a Kantianuniverse where space is an a priori form of intuition. Thisis the meaning of his loneliness before the canvas, his child-like desolationbefore its emptiness. But it is a more ambigu-ous desolationthan this. It dwells upon the act of desecra-tion. Is there any beauty more pure, more unmixed thanthe luminosity of the white rectangle? Here above all wecan no longer doubt that creationis an act of insolence.

Mondrian'swas a gentle insolence, humble even andsubmissive. Before the canvashe listenedcarefully. Listenedto the music of its whiteness and rectangularity. Felt itsplea. Sensed ts demand. (How he defended it from alien-ation.) Nothing, he vowed, shallhappen to it which is notlike itself. (How he cooperates with fate.)

This submissivenessbefore the canvas and concern forits intrinsic nature recognizes a metaphysics of two-dimen-sionality-a metaphysics which is more at home with themanipulationof surfaces than the manipulationof volumes.Painters aredeceptive. For the architecturalmetaphysicone

might turn to Cezanne-never to Mondrian. At least notwithout employing the services of a translator. Space de-terminationmeans that the artist divides empty space. Thedivisions are unequal, but they are equivalent. The divisionand the equivalence are produced by forms and ultimatelyby lines. The painting of Mondriansuggests the draftingboard more than the disorderedpalette. It is at once adelimitation and a domestication of space. In this way itis superbly the painting of cleanliness.

Now, cleanlinessis notprecisely purity, but with theconfused state of the body-mind problem in modern philos-







388 MONDRIAN

ophy t issometimesifficulto effect heir eparation.Nordoes t seem o me thatMondrians withouta metaphysicsof purityalthough hat finds tself expressedot so muchin cleanlinesss n order.

Themedievalsalledt (orthecondition f heartwhichisitsconsequence)laritas.It troubles s todayverymuch.

Perhapsecauset is alien o ourdeepest onfusion.In thatPicasso ndKandinsky, afkaand Mann, ymbolizeon-temporaryrophecy, hat s notequivocal asalmostbeenbanishedrom the tablesof the aestheticallyermissible.Canyouhear t ringingn yourears? "Mondrian? goodpainter f course. But limited. One mightbetempted osay that hehasgoneas far as any modern ainter ouldgowithoutrecourseo the textureof ambiguity."

Mondrian'suritylies in hispassionate elief that thereisarepeatablerderwhich iesclose o the heartof ultimate

reality.Repeatableut inherently nchangeable. ndun-changeablenlybecausen this inalnexus he forceswithinspace ndeven he forces f spacehavereachedquilibrium.Odd but whollycharacteristichat this metaphysicaloreshouldhavedeterminedhe very plasticmeanswhich heemployed,hould avebroughtnto being heeconomy,heveritableeleganceof his style. Here is the Occam'srazorfor the art of painting; ere s the lawof parsimonyo beplacedabovethe austereportalsof the academies f design.

The moreneutral heplasticmeans re,the more heun-changeablexpressionf realitycan be established.t hastakenEuclida thousandearso sayas much.

Thisbringsus to the geometry f the planeandthemystiquef thestraightine. In them iethefixed awsofthe plasticarts. Thestraightine is theessence f two-di-mensionality. In space it performsan act of separation,foreverkeeping partwithoutat the same imeconfining.Curvatures anothermatter. A projectivemind orces hecurve to its natural conclusion. It turns in upon, returnsupon tself. Theemotionalxcessesf thestraightine ead







ALBERTWILLIAM LEVI 389

to lonelinessas those of the curve to claustrophobia. Thefunctional rightness of the straight line is division. Theright functioning of the curve is enclosure. (Here my neat-nessoutdoesitself.)

Now, if you begin by conceiving your field as the purepotentiality of a two-dimensional empty space which it is

your pleasure and your glory to determine through thedivisivequalityof the straight line, as your sense of the com-plication of spatial separation develops, your lines multiplyand you find yourself with a little covey of intersections.The middle canvasesof Mondrian often exhibit this quaintcross-hatching. As pure design they are not always con-vincing, but as a welter of intersections growing from purityof purpose in space determination,they move even as theydelight.

Mondrian'sarticulationof space did not stop here. Itis not easy to say whether this was a matter of physicsor ofmetaphysics. As the straight line is the first determinationof space, and the right-angled intersection is the next, thereis imminent in these beginnings the forms of rectangularity.Extension of right-angled intersectionspresentsthe projec-tive potentialitiesof a sea of rectangles. The stubbornrein-forcement of some of these and the light understatementof others,always in the serviceof a senseof spatialrelation-ship and the balancing of the neoplastic growths (forms)

within the extensive continuum is what makesone of Mon-drian's spaceographs.

Since we have come this far together I feel more can-did. It is hard for me to call them any longer pictures.And this is not simply because in putting them beside thedesigns of Matisse or the atmospheric portraits of Monet,they resist reduction to the same medium. This type ofexperience is so commonplace,so generic within the flux oftechnical vision as to be suspect. It is our innocent response

to any new art slowly assimilated. I think my reluctanceis more than this. I think it is becausethe painting of Mon-







390 MONDRIAN

drian s almosta violationof the unacknowledgedonven-tionsof easelpainting.His paintings re n spiritmurals;do they not cry out for the matrixof the greatwhitewall?Butthis is foolish. Canone believe hatthismeistersingerof spacedid not know that he would have donebetter toembrace he wall?

No, this is not exactly it. What I mean about out-growing the customaryformulationof easelpainting hasto do morewrithhe ideaof the picturerame. Do wenotallknow hatthemost ubtlemetaphysicsnderlieshecon-cept of the picture frame?Is it the window cut into the wallthroughwhichwe aredrawndownthe corridor f illu-sionistic pace? Is it the platformuponwhichthe paint-ing surfacerests,before the wall, asserting ts unlikenessothewall andits functionalnearnesso us? Is it the fencesur-roundinghe garden f the painter'smagery, assionatelydenying,hrough ll theintransigentropertiesf woodormoulding r chrome hat it is of thisworld,yet assertingthat it is-guardingjealouslyhat independentife of itsown whicheveryworkof art declares?

The spaceographsf Mondrian o not wish to beframed;heyareembarrassednddestroyedy theartificialattemptogivethem patial epth. If anything,heymuststandout from the wall-simply asserting heir independ-encefromthe practicalnecessitiesf spacewhichhavegiven

us walls,ceilings, loors n the firstplace. I have oftenthought hatthey mightbe freehanging,uspendedromthe ceiling perhaps or placed upon partitions or tables oftransparent lass. For they arenot the productsof spaceexpressionut the pureeffortsof two-dimensionalpacedetermination,eometricalemonstrationsven, f onemayspeak so quaintly of a work of plastic art. This is why Icall them spaceographs.

Butfurther han his,rectangularityasforMondrian

theprivate ymbolic alueof a stabilizedniverse.If thetruecontentof reality s anequivalencef the formswithin







ALBERTWILLIAM LEVI 391

space congruent with the formal properties of space, thisequivalence finds its perfect metaphor in the rectangularfigure. All art dominatedby two-dimensionality is expres-sive of the relationshipof the rectangle. This for Mondrianis an axiom of technique as well as a statement of meta-physical intelligibility. Since the relation of the rectangu-

lar Positionis constant, it will be appliedwhenever the workdemands the expressionof stability. And when will a workof art demand the expression of stability? Whenever it

seeks to go beyond what is evanescent in experience and tosymbolize the fixity behindexperience. Mondrian'sPlaton-ism make the timelessanswer to the Modern Sophist: Onerealizes more and more the relativity of everything andtherefore one tends to reject the idea of fixed laws, of asingle truth. This is very understandable,but does not lead

to profound vision. For there are made laws, discoveredlaws, but also laws-a truth for all time.The plastic means chosen to illustrate the truth for all

time suggest by their cleanlinessa veritable participation inthe truth itself. There are no muddy earth colors here, noambiguousgreys and blues,no color harmoniesseducing themind from its simple apprehensionof contour into a kindof dreamy chromatic forgetfulness. The sharp lines areblack against white. The parsimonyof color yields only toa sparing placement of primaries, ed, yellow and blue.

Everywhere there is lucidity. Everywhere there are theclarities of simple opposition.

The opposition of forms and their colors gives to thecanvas its own peculiar dynamism. This is heightened bythe effect of straight lines crossingand intersecting at rightangles. Lines whose primary function is the division ofspace, still indicate the more mobile concept of direction.The suggestiveness of Mondrian may lie in the emotionalattention which his canvasesdirect toward a pure spatiae-

ity, and it is not a dead spatiality but one instinct with lifeand motion. Still, it is not restless, and this calm which







392 MONDRIAN

falls upon the sea of space, this sunset of two-dimensional-ity gives in apperception he tranquilityof the final absolute.

It is a tranquility which has nothing more to do withthe dizziness of everyday life and perhaps for this reasonit hasearned from some a quasi-resentment ustained by thesenseof practicality. A mind docile to the insight that mat-

ter in motion presupposes he sense of spatiality and that allof the artifacts of perception are but the witness to ourpractical necessity to carve out space, may grow impatientwith an interest in pure spatiality which issuesin the crea-tive activity of carving out space. For it may find herenot only what its own language calls an obsessiontowardescape,but much that casts a dim light upon its own every-day theatre of operations. And perhaps it does. Perhapsin this way it derives its supplenessand its strength. Per-haps it is there that the painting of Mondrian derives itsassertivecharacter. (Let us grant that it is an art whollywithout moral humidity.)

One statement gives the whole show away. Here iswhat he said: Art is only a substitute as long as the beautyof life is deficient. It will disappearin proportion as lifegains in equilibrium. In some possiblerealmof unconsciousintention the mists of interpretationclear a little. At thispoint each shining spaceographtakes its chin in its handsand opens its mouth to whisper: Where else is peace? This

is why the most smiling canvas can be so moody: becauseit always asks at the very moment that it answers. Simul-taneously a statement about reality is a question about life.

The paintings of Mondriancarry with them a classictruth, beauty, and intellectualpeace. They suggest a higherrealm of fixed reality, of a spatiality which is outside timeand without history and beyond decay. They invoke withritual easethe universaland the invariant. In this formalitylies Mondrian'sdisclosureof the real. (This is not to deny

that he was a crochety man.)He was indeed crochety. He loved straight lines and







ALBERTWILLIAMLEVI 393

he cared ess or people. Nature inallybecame or him anaffront-it was too unreal. He disliked particular move-ment uchaspeoplenaction.Alsohe nevermarried.Howcould he? Wasnot the roundness f everywoman'sbreasta challengeo his metaphysics? oward he end he wasvery lonely.

Also towardthe end a new elementseems o haveenteredhis painting. It would be foolish to call it confu-sion. Confusionwasintrinsicallylien to the qualityofhis vision. Bettercall it a kindof restlessness. t is asthoughthe ordered adences f his earlier anvaseswereforced to give way before a kind of plastic syncopation. Inthe year or so beforehe diedhe did a seriesof BroadwayBoogie-Woogies.The structureremains he same, he whitebackground f the canvascut and cross-cutby the parallels

of demarcation. But the verticalsand horizontalsare nolongerblack. They are composed f minutesquares ndrectanglesf juxtaposed rimaries, ostlyredand yellow.Theeffect sincredible.Movementseverywhere.Lines fsimpledivisionbecomeaxes of energetic ibration.Jazzhas mated with geometry. Pure spatiality has been invadedby dizziness.

Did the change in the plastic expression ndicate achange n the realityconcept of the artist? Was the seren-

ity and orderbasedupon a universe f two-dimensionalspace rembling eforea bleating rombone nd a franticdrum? Had thetimecome o qualify he dignityof spaceby an infusionof pureenergy? Wasthe newervision obe thatof a dynamicuniverse f purevitality? He diedthenat a moment f new youthfulness.

Who wouldhavethought he old manhad so muchblood n him?

Levi on Mondrian

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