Piet Mondrian, calling card
ca. 1919–38
Medium
Letterpress
Dimensions
Sheet: 1 3/4 × 3 1/16 in. (4.4 × 7.7 cm)
Classification
Prints|Ephemera|Calling cards
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of F.C. Schang, 1983
Accession Number
1983.1011.3
Art Historical Context
This calling card, created for the renowned Dutch artist Piet Mondrian between 1919 and 1938, offers a charming glimpse into the everyday life of a modernist pioneer. Produced through letterpress printing—a precise relief technique favored for its clean lines and reproducibility—the small sheet measures just 1 3/4 by 3 1/16 inches. Such cards served as essential tools for professional networking in the early twentieth century, allowing artists like Mondrian to introduce themselves during his years in Paris and beyond. Though the designer remains anonymous, the card reflects the era’s blend of...
About the Artist
Anonymous
In the vast tapestry of art history, "Anonymous" stands not as a singular individual but as a collective designation for countless unidentified creators whose works have endured across millennia. These artists, spanning prehistoric cave painters to medieval illuminators and folk craftsmen, produced the foundational layers of human visual culture. Prior to the Renaissance, when individual fame emer...