Relational Painting No. 90
This large painting, Relational Painting No. 90, was painted on-site by the Swiss artist Fritz Glarner (1899 – 1972). Glarner was heavily influenced by the world renown Dutch abstract painter Piet Mondrian (1872 – 1944).
In contrast to the white background, vertical and horizontal stripes in primary colours and shades of grey stand out. Glarner took these simple colours and geometric elements to make a diagonal sense of movement. This painting follows a mature artistic style with solid blocks of primary colours highlighted with black lines. The artist described his work, saying ""my concern in painting has been to bring about a purer and closer interrelation between form and space.”
Glarner lived much of his life outside his native Switzerland. He spent his childhood split between Italy and France before studying at the Royal Institute of Fine Art in Naples, Italy. For ten years he worked in Paris where he met and became inspired by Mondrian. In 1936, at 37 years old, he moved to Manhattan, where he lived into his 70s, and died in Switzerland in 1972.
The artist was a favorite of Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold, who appreciated the painting as a demonstration of chaos brought into order. This mural occupies a wall in the library building facing the steel and terrazzo marble staircase. This two-story stairwell has the painting in full view as you descend the steps into the adjacent lobby and auditorium below.