oil on masonite relief 24 h × 24 w in (61 × 61 cm)
Burgoyne Diller is considered the preeminent American practitioner of Mondrian's neo-Plasticism. Exhibited in "Burgoyne Diller" at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1990, the present lot is thought to be a precursor of the 1960s American Minimalist art movement. The profoundly abbreviated expression is pioneering in its ultimate break with Mondrian. The departure from Mondrian is two-fold. First, Diller utilizes symmetry as opposed to asymmetry, a central tenet in the work of minimalists Donald Judd and Carl Andre. The second part of Diller's evolution is the denial of the traditional red/yellow/blue palette in favor of black, a conclusion he shared with Ad Reinhart.
Signed and dated verso.
Exhibited:
Galerie Chalette, New York
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
Washburn Gallery, New York
Literature: Burgoyne Diller, Haskell, pg. 154, illustrated.
provenance: Mrs. Helen Benjamin, New York
Sothebys New York, May 1996, lot 90
