Identifying Mondrians

Main Mondrian page - Pictures - bottom

As noted on the main Mondrian pictures page, in checking the cover of Usborne's Understanding Modern Art, it occurred to me that there should be a classification of all the relevant paintings from 1920 onwards, listed by the number of primary colour planes, so the Usborne cover would be "112", i.e. 1 red, 1 yellow and 2 blues. The data was assembled, including counts of black and white/grey planes and the most efficient analysis seems to be RYB plus black.

Suffixes have been added to the picture IDs to denote D(iamond), F(acsimile), R(econstruction) or U(nfinished).

And I might call this coding system the Blackburn-Mondrian Index.

Click the small image to show a larger version, click the picture number (e.g. "B169D") to access details of the work.

Go to key - 1000 - 2000 - 3000 - lines - other

Analysis of colour planes in Mondrian's paintings

R-Y-Bl-Bk	Work(s)
0000	B169D, 1926 B176D, 1926 B211D, 1929 B218D, 1930 B223, 1930 B224, 1930 B229D, 1931 B243, 1931
0002	B166, 1925
0010	B173D, 1926 B244, 1936 B250U, 1934 B258, 1935 B259, 1935 B277, 1937 B309, 1942
0011	B183, 1927
0100	B177R, 1926 B220, 1930 B221, 1930 B231, 1932 B237, 1932 B242R, 1934 B248U, 1934 B251U, 1934 B253, 1935
0110	B165D, 1925 B174R, 1926 B192, 1927 B197, 1927 B208, 1929 B215, 1929 B225, 1930 B228, 1931 B234, 1932 B235, 1932 B236, 1932 B238, 1933 B240, 1933 B256, 1935 B263, 1936 B267, 1936 B271, 1937   ;
0111	B171R, 1926 B193, 1927 B207, 1929
0120	B143, 1922
0200	B264, 1936
0210	B270, 1937
1000	B170, 1926 B172, 1926 B175R, 1926 B181, 1926/7 B186R, 1927 B226, 1931 ; B232, 1932 B245, 1936 B249U, 1934 B254, 1935 B255, 1935 B282D, 1938 B292, 1938
1001	B189, 1927 B214, 1929 B269, 1936
1010	B148R, 1922 B184R, 1927 B195, 1927 B209, 1929 B227, 1931 B230, 1932 B268, 1936 B272, 1937
1011	B157R, 1925
1100	B198, 1927 B265, 1936         ;
1110	B134, 1922 B158R, 1925 B161R, 1925 B164R, 1925 B182, 1927 B185, 1927 B187, 1927 B190, 1927 B191, 1927 B194F, 1927 B196, 1927 B200, 1927 B201, 1928 B216, 1929 B217, 1930 B219, 1930 B222, 1930 B233, 1932 B261, 1935
1111	B126a, c.1920 B124F, 1921 B125, 1921 B127D, 1921 B131, 1921 B135, 1922 B137, 1922 B138, 1922 B139, 1922 B142, 1922 B144, 1922 B145, 1922 B146, 1922 B147, 1922 B149R, 1922 B150, 1923 B155, 1925 B156D, 1925 B159, 1925 B162, 1925 B163, 1925 B180R, 1926/7 B203, 1928 B204, 1928 B205, 1928 B206, 1929 B212, 1929 B213, 1929     ;
1112	B120, 1921 B126, 1921 B128, 1921 B129, 1921 B210, 1929
1113	B136, 1922
1121	B202R, 1928
1122	B160F, 1925
1131	B117, 1921 B132, 1921
1140	B311, 1937/42
1210	B199, 1927
1211	B141, 1922
1212	B114, 1920
1213	B307, 1942
1231	B118R, 1921
1400	B273, 1937
2000	B278U, 1937
2010	B239, 1933
2110	B188, 1927 B297U, 1940
2111	B123, 1921 B152D, 1925 B298U, 1940
2112	B115, 1921 B306, 1942
2121	B122, 1921
2130	B308, 1939-1942
2210	B119R, 1921
2312	B130, 1921
2341	B318, 1940/1942
2433	B116, 1921
2732	B108, 1920
3000	B262, 1936 B266, 1936
3010	B304, 1941
3310	B317, 1942
3323	B110, 1920
3332	B109, 1920
3410	B320, 1937-43
3432	B106, 1920
3434	B105, 1920
3553	B153, 1925
3622	B322, 1939
4120	B310, 1942
4201	B316, 1942
4220	B284, 1939
4310	B315, 1939/1942
4323	B154, 1925
4445	B104, 1920
5010	B313, 1938
5250	B314, 1939/1942
5451	B107, 1920
8011	B312, 1937/1942
lines	B241, 1934 B300U, 1941 B301, 1942 B302U, 1941 B303U, 1941 B319, 1941 B321, 1938/1943 B323, 1942-43 B324, 1944
other	B111 1920/21 B112, 1920 B167, 1926 B168, 1926 B178, 1926 B246U, 1934 B247U, 1934 B290U, 1938 B291U, 1938/39 B305, 1918/1942
Early states	B113-B153, B121-B154, B133-B155, B140-B157, B151-B156, B252-B258, B257-B306, B260-B307, B274-B310, B275-B320, B276-B311, B279-B308, B280-B309, B281-B312, B283-B321, B285-B313, B286-B314, B287-B316, B288-B317, B289-B303, B293-B304, B294-B32, B295-B315, B296-B318, B299-B319

Go to key - 1000 - 2000 - 3000 - lines - other

14th June 2012 - v4 now active and all links added (thanks to Jennie at GCC for explaining how anchors work).

14th August 2011- Adding the links - this will take some time. I might then try a v4 with nested tables as I now have Dreamweaver to help. v3 completed on 20th August. [ord]

13th August 2011- Now working on v2 of the table, adding images with links to the main picture pages. Not every picture on the main pages has an ID to link to (links seem to work only fitfully within tables), but the aim is to get the user within five images of the target - not a particularly elegant or satisfactory solution.

[Later...] Completed loading up the initial picture images with several mistakes found and corrected. I think I will link the small images on this to page to the full image of each painting. I am adding suffixes to the picture IDs to denote D(iamond), F(acsimile), R(econstruction) or U(nfinished).

And I might call this coding system the Blackburn-Mondrian Index.

11th August 2011- In assembling the data, I included counts of black and then of white or grey planes. Once compiled, my first assessment is to extend the key to include black, but not white/grey. Here is the first summary, showing the work numbers but no images. As usual, I start with B104 from 1920.

9th August - 2011 As noted on the main Mondrian pictures page, in checking the cover of Usborne's Understanding Modern Art it occurred to me that there should be a classification of all the relevant paintings from 1920 onwards, listed by the number of primary colour planes, so the Usborne cover would be "112", i.e. 1 red, 1 yellow and 2 blues. It might be necessary to consider lines and planes of other colours (grey and white), but I'll try the RYB first.

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