John Beattie: Reconstructing Mondrian

1 Feb-8 Sep 2023

Overview

This exhibition is based on his filming of Mondrian’s reconstructed Paris Studio, in collaboration with Frans Postma, the Director of STAM, Delft Holland (the architect of Mondrian’s Paris reconstructed Studio).

John Beattie is an Irish visual artist based in Dublin. Beattie’s art practice takes the form of still and moving-image staged productions. He examines and re-presents historical events and narratives using a range of imaging technologies in a way that reveals, or makes visible, often unseen or unknown aspects. Through montage, and layering of historical representations and time-frames, the work offers new perspectives on familiar subjects.

Recently Beattie’s interests have centred on interrogating the traditional ideal of the artist, and the mythic place of creation such as “the Artist’s Studio”

“Beattie’s intention is to explore the meaning and value of this utopian space of high modernism interrogating the construction of myth in our collective memories.
– Michael Dempsey

The exhibition at Hugh Lane Gallery is based on his filming of Mondrian’s reconstructed Paris Studio, in collaboration with Frans Postma, the Director of STAM, Delft Holland (the architect of Mondrian’s Paris reconstructed Studio).

“Reconstructing Mondrian” consists of a cinematic moving image projections, with a new series of large-format photography

During the work’s evolution, Beattie invited Hugh Lane Gallery to view its development. For the artist, this cultural institution was critically and conceptually important for the reason that the HLG holds the permanent studio of Francis Bacon. The relationship between Francis Bacon’s permanent studio to that of Beattie’s cinematic and moving-image reconstruction of Piet Mondrian’s studio opens up the narrative between both spaces – how art historical myths are represented within the frame of a museum.

Artists