Due to its success, extended until the end of January!

Piet Mondriaan and Michel Seuphor | A friendship in line and color

In the bustling Paris of the early twentieth century, the young artist Michel Seuphor (1901–1999) visits Piet Mondrian’s studio. The building makes little impression on Seuphor. He recounts: ‘The courtyard, which led to the entrance of Mondrian’s studio, was quite miserable. The stairwell smelled a bit.” Once inside, Seuphor experiences something special: “beauty, peace, tranquility, and balance.” Mondrian’s vision and precision are palpable in the studio. It is a place where art and philosophy come together.

Michel Seuphor, pseudonym of Fernand-Louis Berckelaers, was one of the key figures in the interwar art scene. As a poet, essayist, art historian, and critic, he defended abstract art and built bridges between generations of artists. He was at the cradle of avant-garde groups and magazines, including the leading Het Overzicht and later the artists’ group Cercle et Carré, which brought together abstract art from different disciplines. With his wide network, from Fernand Léger to Sonia Delaunay, Seuphor played a crucial role in spreading and deepening the ideas behind abstract art.

In addition to his literary work, Seuphor developed his own visual language. Between 1926 and 1929, he created geometrically abstract gouaches in the style of Mondrian, and later experimented with unilinear drawings, ‘clay drawings’, collages, tapestries, carpets, and ceramics. His work is characterized by lines, geometry, and rhythm, illustrating his search for a synthesis between literature and visual art.

The meeting with Mondrian marked the beginning of a long-lasting friendship between the two artists, who continued to inspire each other. Together they created a tableau-poème, in which painting and poetry came together. Seuphor also wrote the first monograph on Mondrian, in which he highlighted his life and work. His multifaceted legacy as a writer, critic, and artist comes to life in this exhibition, which explores the ongoing dialogue between line and color.