Meditistic Arabesque, Jacob Bendien, 1910 - 1930

paper, h 843mm × w 350mm More details

Around 1913, Jacob Bendien and several other Dutchmen developed their own form of entirely abstract art. They presented it in Amsterdam as ‘absolute art’, derived from the ‘absolute music’ – music not explicitly about anything – that was making its appearance at the time. In his work Bendien strove for what he called ‘Meditism’, an expression of emotions that was controlled by the mind.