NEW YORK CITY BOOGIE WOOGIE

Just walking around the neighborhood the other morning when I saw my favorite NYC traffic cop. She’s been keeping me entertained during rush hour for a couple of years now. You can download your podcast here.

Brings to mind Piet Mondrian’s Broadway Boogie Woogie, painted in 1942-1943.

According to MOMA:

Escaping to New York after the start of World War II, Mondrian delighted in the city’s architecture, and, an adept dancer, was fascinated by American jazz, particularly boogie–woogie. He saw the syncopated beat, irreverent approach to melody, and improvisational aesthetic of boogie–woogie as akin to his own “destruction of natural appearance; and construction through continuous opposition of pure means—dynamic rhythm.” Bands of stuttering chromatic pulses, paths of red, yellow, and blue interrupted by light gray suggest the city’s grid and the movement of traffic, while the staccato vibration of colors evokes the syncopation of jazz and the blinking electric lights of Broadway.

Go to MOMA’s site to see an image of Piet’s painting. Or better yet, come to my neighborhood to SEE THE REAL THING. Last I checked, she was directing morning traffic at Second Avenue and 63rd Street.