Victory Boogie Woogie

Victory Boogie Woogie is the last, unfinished work of the Dutch abstract painter Piet Mondrian. Left incomplete in 1944, since 1998 it has been in the collection of the Kunstmuseum in The Hague.[1] It was purchased at a cost of 80 million Dutch guilders (approximately 35 million euros) from the American collector Samuel Irving Newhouse, who purchased the work from Emily and Burton Tremaine for US$12 million in the mid 1980s. It was bought by the Stichting Nationaal Fonds Kunstbezit (National Art Foundation) through a gift from the Dutch Central Bank, commemorating the introduction of the euro. This amount of money spent on the gift raised questions in the Dutch House of Representatives.[2]

Victory Boogie Woogie
ArtistPiet Mondrian
Year1942–44
TypeOil and paper on canvas
Dimensions127 cm × 127 cm (50 in × 50 in)
LocationKunstmuseum, The Hague. Formerly owned by Samuel Irving Newhouse, Jr. and Emily and Burton Tremaine / The Miller Company Collection of Abstract Art.
OwnerState property of the Netherlands through the Stichting Nationaal Fonds Kunstbezit

The artwork was purchased by the Tremaines shortly after Mondrian's death and became part of the Miller Company Collection of Abstract Art in Meriden, Connecticut. In 1947-52, Victory Boogie Woogie was exhibited as the lead artwork in the corporate collection's exhibition Painting toward architecture, originating at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, CT and travelling to 28 venues across the United States, including the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the Baltimore Museum of Art, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. In consideration of the fragility of the artwork, a copy and a "completed" version of it were exhibited in most venues.[3]

The exhibition catalogue essay was written by Henry-Russell Hitchcock, with a foreword by Alfred Barr, at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.[4][5] A photo of the painting in on the cover of the biography of art collector Emily Hall Tremaine as well as the exhibition catalogue The Tremaine Collection: 20th century masters.[6][7]

In 2014, U.S. President Barack Obama was photographed with Victory Boogie Woogie, sometimes with Dutch politicians, an event which was widely reported by the Dutch and Flemish news media.[8]

Photographer Louise Lawler has appropriated partially cropped views of Victory Boogie Woogie in several photographs focused on the Tremaine art collection in residential interiors and on view in the 1984 Tremaine Collection exhibition at the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford.[9]

References
  1. Mondriaan, Victory Boogie Woogie. Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, 2013. 16 May 2013. Archived here.
  2. Troy, Nancy J. (2013). The afterlife of Piet Mondrian, chapter 1 - Mondrian and Money: Victory Boogie Woogie. University of Chicago Press.
  3. Preece, R. J. (January 8, 2018). "Piet Mondrian. Victory boogie woogie & Painting toward architecture. artdesigncafe. Retrieved June 28, 2018.
  4. (1948). Painting toward architecture: The Miller Company Collection of Abstract Art. The Miller Company: Meriden, CT.
  5. (July 16, 2016). "The Painting toward architecture exhibition (1947-52) by the Miller Company Collection of Abstract Art: Venues, documentation and media coverage". artdesigncafe.com. Retrieved August 26, 2016.
  6. Housley, Kathleen L. (2001) "Emily Hall Tremaine: Collector on the cusp". The Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation: Meriden, CT. Retrieved August 27, 2016.
  7. (1984). "The Tremaine Collection: 20th Century Masters. The Spirit of Modernism". Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT. Retrieved August 27, 2016.
  8. (undated). "Mondriaan's Victory Boogie Woogie: 10 Commerciële Lessen!". basvanderlands.nl. [News websites have removed the photo; photo can be seen here.] Retrieved June 28, 2018.
  9. (2007). Louise Lawler: The Tremaine pictures, 1984-2007. BFAS Blondeau Fine Arts Services, Geneva, Switzerland.


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