Chrysanthemum 1900

Curator: Right, let’s turn our attention to Piet Mondrian’s "Chrysanthemum," a drawing rendered around 1900, currently held at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. It combines watercolor, pencil, and charcoal in a beautifully subdued way. Editor: Mmm, it gives me this haunting feeling, almost ghostly. The bloom seems to hover against that murky background. There’s something both delicate and strangely powerful about it. Curator: Mondrian’s early work often gets overshadowed by his later geometric abstractions, but it is critical to look at this earlier period. Consider his embrace of those muted colors: sepia, ochre, umber – they are less about realism and more about capturing a feeling. And you rightly note the technique combines multiple media, demonstrating that Mondrian's hand has clear command over material concerns in this earlier work. Editor: Exactly. It’s like the flower is emerging from memory, from the earth itself. The watercolor allows a fluidity that almost dissolves the form, while the sharper lines define the fragility of each petal. He is clearly using color not to represent the color of a typical flower, but to give a feeling or essence of it. Curator: There’s a strong argument to be made that Mondrian is subverting traditional notions of flower painting. Instead of simple decoration or a show of wealth, here the flower is, indeed, almost decaying before our eyes, prompting reflection on the cycle of life, materiality, the natural world and its fate. Editor: Definitely a moodier meditation. More Emily Dickinson than a joyful summer’s day, and yet I also find something optimistic here, or at least hopeful, as though the flower persists in its essence. I also can't help thinking what an accomplishment to bring together water colors and charcoal in such a lovely harmony. Curator: Well, seeing it now, framed within our dialogue, reminds me that looking at art is also about watching what new insights will bloom for those with a more careful attention to craft and intention. Editor: Yes, perhaps like a flower from simple dirt, seeing what can be done with water colors, pencil and charcoal lets me be excited by the simple medium.