Where to See Broadway Boogie Woogie in New York

Dutch painter Piet Mondrian painted this Broadway Boogie Woogie in 1943, shortly after fleeing wartime Europe for New York. The painting vibrates with the energy of Manhattan's grid and the syncopated rhythms of boogie-woogie jazz. Small colored blocks pulse along yellow lines like traffic signals or musical beats.

Mondrian abandoned his earlier black lines for yellow, red, and blue. The strict geometry of De Stijl meets American dynamism. It was his last completed painting before his death in 1944. The work hangs in MoMA.

Boogie-woogie is a form of jazz piano with a driving, syncopated bass line. Mondrian loved the music and frequented New York jazz clubs. The painting's rhythm echoes boogie-woogie's pulsing beat.

The painting shows Mondrian's late evolution. He replaced black lines with colored segments, creating unprecedented energy. It bridges European geometric abstraction and American Abstract Expressionism.

Yes, Broadway Boogie Woogie is complete. Mondrian was working on Victory Boogie Woogie when he died in 1944. That painting remains unfinished in The Hague.

Broadway Boogie Woogie

More by Piet Mondrian

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Details

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The Artist

Cite or Embed This Work

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Also at Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)

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One: Number 31, 1950

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Cage (1-6)

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About Broadway Boogie Woogie

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