Sidebar: Did Mondrian hate green?

"Mondrian hated green."

This is a powerful statement.

When one hears this from a college professor in an art study class at a time of life when one is full of wide-eyed openness it makes a lasting impression.

To this day, I have wondered why Mondrian hated the color green.

I have felt diminished every time I wanted to use green in my own work, and wondered at myself for my green-themed bedroom as a teenager.

I have tried to uncover the source of Mondrian’s hate. So far, it seems many think it is a rejection of his earlier, rote landscape work.

Instead, I like to think of it as conscious omission once he evolved into a more analytical style and reduced his color palette to primary red, yellow and blue. This style culminated in his magnificent painting, Broadway Boogie Woogie, which also happened to be the last painting that Mondrian completed.

Still, it is a powerful statement. And will have a lasting impact on me.

Traci Churchill
Roswell, Georgia
April 25, 2021

Broadway Boogie Woogie, 1942-43, by Piet Mondrian. Oil on canvas, 50 x 50". Given anonymously to MoMA (Object number 73.1943)