Stone Vintage (Amethyst Evening, New York)

The four works by Charmion von Wiegand from the Hirschland collection and assembled here are prime examples of von Wiegand's early painting under the influence of Neo-Plasticist Piet Mondrian and as a leader of of the American Abstract Artists Group. Born in 1896 in Chicago, von Wiegand studied to be a journalist and had only been painting in earnest for a brief time before leaving for Russia in 1929 to work as a foreign correspondent for Hearst newspapers. Upon returning to New York, von Wiegand pursued art journalism and developed a circle of artist acquaintances that included John Graham, Joseph Stella and Mark Tobey. In 1941, the artist Carl Holty introduced her to Mondrian, who had just arrived in New York six months prior. This meeting led to a close friendship and von Wiegand's abiding fascination with Neo-Plastic theory. Von Wiegand would become a close collaborator with Mondrian and the first author to translate his writings into English. Ultimately, von Wiegand became deeply interested in the spiritual theories of Theosophy and Tibetan Buddhism, and her Purist grids yielded to metaphysical images and mystical symbols. Thirty works from this later period were recently on display at Michael Rosenfeld Gallery in New York in Spring 2007, testifying to both the historical relevance and startling contemporaneity of von Wiegand's works.