Dutch painter Piet Mondrian is considered one of the greatest abstract artists of the twentieth century. He is best known for his 'composition paintings' and his contribution to the De Stijl movement.
Read MorePiet Mondrian was born in 1872 in Amersfoort, Netherlands. His uncle, Frits Mondrian, introduced him to painting at a young age and taught him the art of open-air painting.
When Piet turned 20 years old, he decided to pursue an education in the arts. From 1892 to 1897 he studied painting at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam. During his time at art school, Mondrian practiced still life and landscape painting. He also studied Impressionist and Symbolist painting techniques.
Throughout the early 1900s, Mondrian began experimenting with a range of artistic styles including Cubism and Pointillism. In 1912, he moved to Paris where he observed the work of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. Mondrian's experience of Picasso and Braque's work and his interest in Analytic Cubism led him to develop a uniquely independent abstract style.
After World War I began, Mondrian returned to his homeland, the Netherlands, settling in Amsterdam. During his time there, he experimented with varying styles of art by reducing his colour palette and simplifying his use of geometric shapes.
In 1917, Mondrian founded the De Stijl movement alongside contemporaries Theo van Doesburg, Bart van der Leck, and Georges Vantongerloo. The movement was based on a strict geometry of vertical and horizontal lines featuring the primary colours red, yellow, and blue in addition to white and black.
In this painting, Mondrian depicts a vivid red cloud floating above a blue landscape. The painting is a rapidly executed sketch made on cardboard. Mondrian's painterly style and use of colour in The Red Cloud (1907) is similar to the art of Post-Impressionism, specifically Van Gogh's work.
The Red Cloud presents Mondrian's move away from the tradition of Impressionism. The artwork also signals Mondrian's new direction of artistic development that favours colour as a dominant element in painting.
The Gray Tree (1911—12) is an example of Mondrian's transition toward abstraction. In this series of paintings, Mondrian depicts a tree made from simple lines and a monochrome colour palette made from greys and blacks.
Each painting Mondrian produced in The Gray Tree series becomes more abstract. The work represents Mondrian's desire to reduce form and structure and move away from naturalistic representation.
Composition with Red, Yellow, and Blue (1929) is Mondrian's most well-known work. The painting features black horizontal and vertical lines that form the outlines of various rectangles of red, yellow, black or white.
Mondrian's painting represents an entirely new form of abstraction that reflected on the flow of modern life during the 1920s and 1930s. By simplifying his subject down to asymmetrical forms and basic primary colours, Mondrian created an abstract style of art completely removed from the pre-existing movements of Cubism and Futurism.
Major retrospective exhibitions of Mondrian's work have been held at galleries including the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.
Mondrian's work is included in the permanent collections of many galleries and institutions.
Selected permanent collections include: the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Kunstmuseum in Basel, and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice.
Piet Mondrian has exhibited work extensively in solo and group exhibitions at major galleries and museums.
Solo exhibitions include: Mondrian, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin (2021); Painting 1900—1905, David Zwirner Gallery, London (2016); Piet Mondrian, Albertina, Vienna (2005); Piet Mondrian: 1872—1944, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. (1995); Mondrian: Paintings and Drawings 1900—1914, Sidney Janis Gallery, New York (1980); Piet Mondrian at the Guggenheim Museum, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (1976—79); Piet Mondrian, Museum of Art, Santa Barbara (1965); Piet Mondrian Retrospective, The Washington Gallery of Modern Art, Washington D.C. (1965).
Group exhibitions include: Fleck and Star: Piet Mondrian, Carl Andre, Li Yuan-chia and Bob Law, Karsten Schubert Gallery, London (2019); Mondrian/De Stijl, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2010—11); Léger: Modern Art and the Metropolis, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia (2013—14); Twentieth-Century Modern Masters: The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection, The Royal Academy, London (1990); Painters of de Stijl: Debut of Abstract Art in Holland, 1917—21, Sidney Janis Gallery, London (1951).
Ocula | 2022
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