Influenced by the works of Piet Mondrian from the 1910s and 1920s, Diller devised his own abstract formats in the 1930s. Divided into groups called "first," "second," and "third" themes, Diller’s three series explore the movement generated by different arrangements of geometric forms within a square canvas. "Second" theme pictures, such as this, feature a grid system within which rectangular bands of differing widths extend across the canvas.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Second Theme
Artist:Burgoyne Diller (American, New York, New York 1906–1965 New York, New York)
Date:1938–40
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:30 1/8 × 30 1/8 in. (76.5 × 76.5 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:George A. Hearn Fund, 1963
Accession Number:63.72
Inscription: Signed and dated (verso, on stretcher): diller 1938-40
[James Graham & Sons, New York, until 1963; sold to MMA]
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Three Centuries of American Painting," April 9–October 17, 1965, unnum. checklist.
New York. B. Altman & Co. December 4–10, 1969, no catalogue.
Minneapolis. Walker Art Center. "Burgoyne Diller: Paintings, Sculptures, Drawings," December 12, 1971–January 16, 1972, no. 4.
Dallas Museum of Fine Arts. "Burgoyne Diller: Paintings, Sculptures, Drawings," February 16–March 26, 1972, no. 4.
Pasadena Art Museum. "Burgoyne Diller: Paintings, Sculptures, Drawings," May 9–July 2, 1972, no. 4.
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. "Post-Mondrian Abstraction in America," March 31–May 13, 1973.
San Juan. El Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña. "Arte del Siglo Veinte: EE.UU. del Museo Metropolitano de Arte," April 19–May 31, 1974, no. 15.
Albuquerque. University of New Mexico Art Museum. "American Abstract Artists," February 27–April 3, 1977, unnumbered cat. (p. 25).
New York. Davis & Long Company. "Brooklyn College Art Department: Past and Present, 1942–1977," September 13–October 8, 1977, unnumbered cat. (p. 44).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Tribute to a Curator: Robert Beverly Hale," November 16, 1978–March 4, 1979, extended to March 18, 1979, unnum. checklist.
New Haven. Yale University Art Gallery. "Mondrian and Neo-Plasticism in America," October 18–December 2, 1979, no. 8.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Yves Saint Laurent: 25 Years of Design," December 14, 1983–September 2, 1984, unnum. checklist (installed in galleries of Costume Institute exhibition).
New York. Whitney Museum of American Art. "Abstract Painting and Sculpture in America, 1927-1944," June 28–September 9, 1984, no. 38.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Design 1925–1945: Selections from the Collection," December 18, 1989–June 1, 1991, no catalogue [on view December 18, 1989–August 24, 1990 and March 20–June 1, 1991].
New York. Whitney Museum of American Art. "Burgoyne Diller," September 13–November 25, 1990, unnumbered cat. (fig. 59).
New York. Washburn Gallery. "Referencing Mondrian No. 1: Burgoyne Diller, Fritz Glarner, Harry Holtzman, Charmion von Wiegand," October 17–November 18, 1995, unnumbered cat. (dated 1937–38).
Henry Geldzahler. American Painting in the Twentieth Century. New York, 1965, p. 148, ill.
George Rickey. Constructivism: Origins and Evolution. New York, 1967, p. 95, fig. 9.
Leo Lerman. The Museum: One Hundred Years and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1969, ill. p. 360.
Harry Rand. "The 1930s and Abstract Expressionism." The Genius of American Painting. Ed. John Wilmerding. New York, 1973, ill. p. 261, dates it 1937–38.
Charlotte Buel Johnson. Contemporary Art: Exploring Its Roots and Development. Worcester, Mass., 1973, p. 27, fig. 22.
Edward B. Henning. "Two New Paintings in the Neo-Plastic Tradition." Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 62 (April 1975), p. 108, fig. 5, dates it 1937–38.
Burgoyne Diller and Harlan Phillips. "Interview: Burgoyne Diller Talks with Harlan Phillips." American Art Journal 16, no. 2 (1976), ill. p. 16, dates it 1937–38.
Nancy J. Troy. Mondrian and Neo-Plasticism in America. Exh. brochure, Yale University Art Gallery. New Haven, Conn., 1979, p. 9, no. 8, ill.
Susan C. Larsen inAbstract Painting and Sculpture in America, 1927-1944. Ed. John R. Lane and Susan C. Larsen. Exh. cat., Pittsburgh Carnegie Museum of Art. Pittsburgh, 1983, p. 28.
Nancy J. Troy inAbstract Painting and Sculpture in America, 1927-1944. Ed. John R. Lane and Susan C. Larsen. Exh. cat., Pittsburgh Carnegie Museum of Art. Pittsburgh, 1983, p. 71, no. 38, ill., dates it 1937–38.
William C. Agee. "Burgoyne Diller: Drawing and the Abstract Tradition in America." Arts Magazine 59 (October 1984), p. 83, dates it 1937–38.
Matthew Baigell. A Concise History of American Painting and Sculpture. New York, 1984, p. 281, fig. 280, dates it 1937–38.
Barbara Haskell. Burgoyne Diller. Exh. cat., Whitney Museum of American Art. New York, 1990, pp. 52, 55, 178, fig. 59 (color).
Arnauld Pierre. "Un Relief de Burgoyne Diller, 'Wall Construction' (1938), Entre au Musée de Grenoble." Revue du Louvre: La Revue des Musées de France 5/6 (December 1997), p. 92, fig. 2 (color), dates it 1937–38.
H. H. Arnason. History of Modern Art: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, Photography. Ed. Marla F. Prather and Daniel Wheeler. Rev. 4th ed. (1st ed., 1968). New York, 1998, p. 434, colorpl. 231, dates it 1937–38.
Joan M. Marter, ed. The Grove Encyclopedia of American Art. Vol. 2, New York, 2011, p. 73, ill., calls it "Second Themes" in caption, dates it 1937–38, and erroneously locates it in MoMA's collection in text.
Judith Clark. "The Costume Institute 1972–1989: Re-Styling History." Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel. Ed. Lisa Immordino Vreeland. New York, 2011, p. 239, ill. (color installation photo, Exh. New York 1983–84), misattributes this painting to Piet Mondrian.
Ingrid Mida. Dressing and Undressing Duchamp. London, 2022, pp. 152, 161 n. 94.
Nancy J. Troy and Ann Marguerite Tartsinis. Mondrian's Dress: Yves Saint Laurent, Piet Mondrian, and Pop Art. Cambridge, Mass., 2023, pp. 89, 91, figs. 2.27 (installation photo with Yves Saint Laurent, Exh. New York 1983–84), 2.29 (color).
Ellsworth Kelly (American, Newburgh, New York 1923–2015 Spencertown, New York)
1963
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