PERHAPS you don’t immediately know the name Piet Mondrian, but you might more readily know his style: unevenly spaced boxes, some filled with color, some without. They have been used in design, architecture, even clothing for a century. Born in Holland, Mondrian (1872-1944) like many abstract and modern artists such as Picasso started out working realistically, but got ever more abstract as he went on. “I’m not a connoisseur but I know what I like,” and while Hopper is my favorite painter in a realistic style, for me, Mondrian edges out people like Jackson “Jack the Dripper” Pollock as far as modern art is concerned.
250 East 54th Street, off 2nd Avenue, is a 43-story condo tower whose spacious, viewy apartments I won’t be affording without a winning lottery ticket. I imagine the builders named the building, opened in 1990, on a whim for the modernist painter. Some of Mondrian’s colored boxes have been placed in the building’s awning, and there may be more Mondrian-inspired furnishings inside (if you know about them, Comments are open).
Kevin Walsh is the webmaster of the award-winning website Forgotten NY, and the author of the books Forgotten New York (HarperCollins, 2006) and also, with the Greater Astoria Historical Society, Forgotten Queens (Arcadia, 2013)
12/28/23