Hardback book to accompany The Watson Gordon Lecture 2017, Classic Mondrian in Neo-Calvinist View. Joseph Masheck re-examines the spiritual in Mondrian’s art, proposing (instead of the usual recourse to Theosophy) that the painter’s spiritual grounding concerned theological ‘justification’ in the here and now.
The artist’s Calvinist Christianity is assessed firstly through his own published texts and through significant parallels with the contemporary Dutch Neo-Calvinist movement.
It is then examined in relation to the balanced asymmetrical abstractions of Mondrian’s ‘classic’ phase of the 1920s and ’30s. Finally, the legacy of this classic phase, right up to today, is considered in this extraordinary and inspiring reassessment of one of the fathers of abstract art.
Series: The Watson Gordon Lecture Series
The Watson Gordon Lectures, established in 2006, typify the long-standing collaboration between the University of Edinburgh and the National Galleries of Scotland.
Each lecture is by a leading scholar and reveals new research on a focused topic. The lectures are delivered and published annually.
