Boogie-Woogie Wolf by M. Blair Ligon
after Piet Mondrian, sponsored by Artspace.
Artist's Statement
"Boogie-Woogie Wolf" is a montage of renderings of Piet Mondrian's famous 1942 "Broadway Boogie-Woogie" across the surface of my Rambling Red Wolf. As a Dutch refugee in NYC, Mondrian was especially impressed by two things: the view of traffic patterns and neon lights from the tall buildings and the syncopated, rhythmic patterns of the jazz on 52nd Street.
Mondrian adhered to the black, white, gray, yellow, blue and red pallet of the Amsterdam De Stijl movement, searching for "an expression of pure reality" in the rectilinear, modulated forms. "Broadway Boogie-Woogie" was among Mondrian's last pieces before his death in 1944. I once had the privilege of spending some time with "Broadway Boogie-Woogie" at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC, until a guard made me move along. It was like an afternoon at the symphony.
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Piet Mondrian's 1942 "Broadway Boogie-Woogie" |
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Original sketch for "Boogie-Woogie Wolf" |
"Boogie-Woogie Wolf" tries to
recapture the joy and excitement of Mondrian's freshly minted
view of the electric American urban landscape. Just as Jazz progressed
from structured Boogie-Woogie to the more organic freeforms of
Be-Bop, "Boogie-Woogie Wolf" fractures, collages and
refashions Mondrian's rendering of the vitality of city streets
to reflect the complexity of life in the modern American city
of Raleigh. I'm therefore very pleased that a downtown arts institution
such as Artspace
has chosen to sponsor "Boogie-Woogie Wolf."
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Track the paws for more information on how to participate as a sponsor, artist or volunteer. A project of the City of Raleigh Arts Commission. |
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