In 1942-1943, artist Piet Mondrian created an oil painting entitled ‘”Broadway Boogie Woogie”. One of the questions that Mondrian's compositions raises is that of the relation between abstract composition and reality, between sign abd reference. Broadway Boogie Woogie, for example, is an abstract composition of lines and colors that could represent: 1. the rhythm of a piece of jazz 2. the grid of New York City 3. the dynamism of the streets 4. the yellow taxis moving through the streets. 5. a map of the subway 6. the play of lights in the city skyline. All of these interpretations are valid because Mondrian's painting does not depict a particular object (reference), but it creates its own object. In this regard, the less important thing is the resemblance between the painting and the depicted object, for example, between the grid of the painting and the grid of the city. The most important thing is that the painting becomes an autonomous formal system, to which every viewer can attribute a different meaning.
From Reclams Jazzführer, C. Bohländer, K.H. Holle,
