Mondrian Moves to NYC and Discovers Colored Tape
Piet Mondrian’s move to America introduced him to colored adhesive tape, transforming his iconic black lines into vibrant grids of red, blue, and yellow.
When Piet Mondrian arrived in New York City in 1940, the city’s skyscrapers and vibrant pace captivated him. But it wasn’t just the skyline or jazz rhythms that changed his art—it was something much humbler: colored adhesive tape.
Unlike the masking tape he’d used in Europe, this American invention came in bold red, blue, and yellow. Mondrian first saw it in use by painter Carl Holty, and it radically transformed his process. With the tape, Mondrian could experiment endlessly, moving and adjusting the bands to perfect his iconic grid compositions. It marked the beginning of a shift away from his famous black lines, replacing them with vibrant, interlaced color.
One of his first New York works, New York City 1 (1941)—infamously hung upside down for 75 years—was crafted using this colored tape. The unfinished Victory Boogie Woogie still bears remnants of the strips, revealing Mondrian’s process in action. By the time he painted Broadway Boogie Woogie, the transition was complete: no tape, just pure paint.
This revolutionary material that redefined Mondrian’s vision was never meant for art at all—it was an everyday American product, but it helped the painter reimagine modernism in bold, playful ways. Sometimes, the smallest things stick the most.
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