Remembering a Lecture on Mondrian

Couple of times during the mid 1980’ Walter Benjaimin delivered an unusual lecture on paintings by Piet Mondrian that were unusually dated after his death(?), from 1963 until 1993, a few years after the lecture took place(?). Lecture titled „Mondrian ’63-’96“ was first presented 1986 in „Cankarjev dom“. Organized by the Marxist Center and ŠKUC Gallery in Ljubljana it was the first (re)appearance of Walter Benjamin after his death in 1940 and was held in Slovenian language. The next year it was held this time in English, in the auditorium of the Architecture Faculty in Belgrade. Since this lecture was recorded it was later broadcasted on television art program „TV Gallery“. The last time this lecture was held in Moscow in 2021.

 

What was Modern Art?
Once upon a time, there lived an adventurous young man. Being an explorer and ethnographer at heart, he longed to travel and make great discoveries. Then it happened one day that he heard a tale about some curious developments among the natives of the Old World. A new style in the making and decorating of art objects, it was said, had been spreading among the craftsmen of various tribes. The movement was already dying out, however, and soon it would slip into oblivion. Intrigued, the explorer immediately organized a series of expeditions across the ocean. He visited all the important places, collected paintings and other exotic objects from the natives and recorded the stories they told. Impressed with what he saw and heard, he brought back many artifacts and decided to establish an ethnographic museum, naming it the Museum of Modern Art.

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