“Years later," Brassefort said, "I realized Mondrian had been offering to play tic-tac-toe. But it was still an important lesson. The future of abstraction was, indeed, my move.

"I kept that piece of paper for many years, waiting for the day when I would fufill the master's expectations, or the day I could sell it as one of his works. I'd become quite adept at the art of signature mimicry, as we called it, so I gave the napkin the gift of authenticity. Never did sell it, though."

Brassefort’s first few Mondrian-inspired works were, by his own admission, somewhat derivative.

Soon, however, he grew into his own style, a mix of De Stijl's rational simplicity and his own American brio. People have looked down on Brassefort's work ever since it fell from fashion, but perhaps this reevaulation will help bring him back to the first rank of American abstractionists. Let's begin!