Мondrian’s “Тransdance”: Тransposition of Music and Dance Movements into Painting

Neda Kolić

Neda Kolić University of Arts in Belgrade, Faculty of Music, Department of Musicology

Keywords: Piet Mondrian, Fox Trot A, Fox Trot B, the Foxtrot, jazz music, rhythm and movement, colour and harmony

Abstract

Besides painting, Piet Mondrian (1872–1944) was a devotee of the modern dances that appeared in the 1920s, such as the Foxtrot and the Charleston. Because of the rhythms of jazz he passionately danced to in the dance halls and in his studio, he
became known as ‘The Dancing Madonna’. Paintings such as Fox Trot A (1930) and Fox Trot B (1929) could be interpreted as a kind of homage to dance – to the Foxtrot, and then, implicitly, to jazz music as well, which allows the observer to associatively imagine the possible transpositions of the basic elements of dance, and thus of jazz into a painting.

Author Biography

Neda Kolić, University of Arts in Belgrade, Faculty of Music, Department of Musicology

Neda Kolić is a PhD student, and a graduate student instructor at the Department of Musicology, Faculty of Music, University of Arts in Belgrade. She completed her bachelor and master studies at the Department of Musicology of the Faculty of Music in Belgrade. At the 7th International Student Conference Competition in Musicology in Tbilisi (Georgia) she received the Diploma for the best paper of MA Student. Her research interest is in the possible interconnections between music and visual arts.