Decoding Mondrian: A Computer-Generated Artwork in the Spirit of ‘Victory Boogie Woogie’

In April 2013, Loe Feijs, a professor at Eindhoven, hit the spacebar on his computer triggering an algorithm. Conservators at the Gemeentemuseum, the Netherlands watched as a version of Piet Mondrian’s last masterpiece, Victory Boogie Woogie (VBW) (1944), emerged. Feijs had just won the museum’s “Elegant Algorithms” competition in which contestants were challenged to create their own variant of VBW through computer code.¹

The competition aimed to highlight computer programming as a “modern craft”², countering popular perceptions of coding as a mechanical, objective process. Feijs’ winning entry exemplified this aim.

The VBW was left unfinished by Mondrian’s death and has been under intense scrutiny by experts trying to understand Mondrian’s creative process. Despite their geometric abstraction, it was clear that a tremendous creative energy went into the composition of his works. Similar to his Broadway Boogie Woogie (1942-43), coloured rectangles and squares reference the syncopated, improvised rhythms of jazz music. These elements are composed of paint or little pieces of tape, and Mondrian used this flexibility to make constant changes to the composition, in seeking to arrive at the overall effect.

The act of writing the code led Feijs to decompose the work into 574 mini paintings.³ He then used his own initiative to randomly generate them individually based on changes made by Mondrian over his lifetime.⁴ Feijs’ variant of VBW carries on from Mondrian’s work in progress; a film of his attempt is displayed alongside the original at the Gemeentemuseum — a compelling tribute to Mondrian himself.