For decades, the story of 20th-century abstract art was dominated by the towering figure of Dutch painter Piet Mondrian. His iconic grids of black lines and primary colours became synonymous with modernist purity. Now, a major reappraisal is underway, placing a once-obscure British artist, Marlow Moss, at the heart of the narrative, with compelling evidence suggesting she was a key influence on Mondrian's most famous innovation.
From Footnote to Front and Centre
In a telling reversal, visitors to the prestigious Kunstmuseum in The Hague will find works by Moss positioned prominently, while a comparable piece by Mondrian is partially hidden. This shift reflects a growing consensus in the art world: the influence between the two was mutual, and in the case of the double or parallel line – a defining feature of Mondrian's later work – Moss may well have been the pioneer.
Seven decades after her death in Cornwall in 1958, Moss is enjoying a dramatic revival. Her 1944 painting White, Black, Blue and Red sold for £609,000 at Sotheby's in 2023, doubling its estimate and setting a new auction record for her work. Major exhibitions are now showcasing her output, including a current display of her paintings and sketches at the Kunstmuseum and an upcoming sculpture show at Berlin's Georg Kolbe Museum in April.
A Radical Life and a Shared Technique
Born Marjorie Jewel Moss in London in 1889, she reinvented herself as the gender-neutral Marlow after moving to Cornwall, adopting masculine attire and becoming part of Paris's avant-garde scene in the late 1920s. There, she joined the Abstraction-Création group and formed a lifelong partnership with Dutch writer Netty Nijhoff. It was Nijhoff who introduced Moss to Mondrian.
Art historian Florette Dijkstra, author of a new Moss biography, notes that Mondrian was deeply impressed by Moss's experimentation within the movement of neoplasticism. He was particularly intrigued by her use of materials like cork and wood, and her deployment of the double line to create more dynamic compositions. Correspondence reveals Mondrian wrote to Moss asking her to explain her approach, after observing she used the double line in a novel way—not allowing it to intersect other lines.
"For a long time, he was seen as the instigator," says Clairie Hondtong, curator of The Hague exhibition. "Though it's unclear who used it first, we now know Mondrian was intrigued by Moss's use of double lines." The current scholarly view moves away from simplistic claims of theft, focusing instead on a fertile interchange of knowledge between the two artists.
Legacy Reclaimed from a Suitcase
Moss's relative obscurity was compounded by tragedy when a house in Normandy containing much of her work was bombed in 1944. Her legacy, however, has been dramatically bolstered by the recent discovery of a suitcase full of her sketches, acquired by the Kunstmuseum. These works, some believed to be from the early 1940s, reveal her meticulous, mathematical planning process, contrasting with Mondrian's more intuitive method.
Lucy Howarth, the leading English-language expert on Moss, emphasises the artist's unique position. "She is one of the few top-tier non-figurative British artists from between the wars," Howarth states, "and she was the only Briton and the only female artist featured in all five Abstraction-Création journals."
While Mondrian found global fame in New York, Moss spent her later years between Cornwall, Paris, and the Netherlands. Today, her story is reframing art history itself, challenging the myth of the solitary male genius. As Howarth concludes, "It's so interesting to find lesser-known artists and examine their impact – and it's no surprise to find many of them were women and/or queer. Their presence complicates the story. But it also enriches it – for all of us."
The exhibition 'Marlow Moss: A Suitcase Full of Sketches' continues at the Kunstmuseum, The Hague, until 10 May. 'Creating Space: The Constructivist Marlow Moss' opens at the Georg Kolbe Museum, Berlin, on 2 April.
