PIET MONDRIAN

Movement: De Stijl

Himanshu Bansal 10020516

De Stijl

Meaning: The Style • also known as neo-plasticism – new plastic art • Dutch artistic movement founded in 1917 and existed till 1931 • also the name of a journal that was published by the Dutch painter,

designer Theo van Doesburg • Other principal member of the group Piet Mondrian, Vilmos Huszár, Bart

van der Leck, Gerrit Rietveld, Robert van 't Hoff and J.J.P. Oud • was influenced by Cubist painting as well as by the mysticism and the ideas

about "ideal" geometric forms

De Stijl

Characteristics • ultimate simplicity and abstraction, both in architecture and painting • by a reduction to the essentials of form and colour • uses only straight horizontal and vertical lines and rectangular forms • primary colours red, yellow, and blue, and the three primary values black,

white, and grey • avoided symmetry and attained aesthetic balance by the use of opposition

Piet Mondrian

Education

• His father was a headmaster of a primary school and a drawing instructor himself • Fritz Mondriaan, was an accomplished artist who taught his nephew to paint. • Diploma in teaching free hand drawing in primary and secondary schools. • Studies painting for 4 years at the Rijksacademie (Royal Academy)

Piet Mondrian

The Netherlands 1872–1912

Paris

1911–1914

The Netherlands 1914–1919

Paris

1919–1938

London and New York 1938–1944

Naturalism 1895-1905 Evening Landscapes 1906-1907 Luminism-Modernist 1908-1911 Cubism 1912-1916 Neo-Plasticism 1917–1944

Places he lived Art Style

Piet Mondrian

Key Ideas

• He simplified the subjects of his paintings down to the most basic elements, in order to reveal the essence of the mystical energy in the balance of forces that governed nature and the universe.

• The basic vertical and horizontal elements, which represented the two essential opposing forces: the positive and the negative, the dynamic and the static, the masculine and the feminine.

• Mondrian's singular vision for modern art is clearly demonstrated in the methodical progression of his artistic style from traditional representation to complete abstraction. His paintings evolve in a logical manner, and clearly convey the influence of various modern art movements such as Luminism, Impressionism, and most importantly, Cubism.

• Mondrian, and the artists of De Stijl, advocated pure abstraction and a pared down palette in order to express a utopian ideal of universal harmony in all of the arts. By using basic forms and colors, Mondrian believed that his vision of modern art would transcend divisions in culture and become a new common language based in the pure primary colors, flatness of forms, and dynamic tension in his canvases.

• Mondrian's book on Neo-Plasticism became one of the key documents of abstract art. In it, he detailed his vision of artistic expression in which "plastic" simply referred to the action of forms and colors on the surface of the canvas as a new method for representing modern reality.

WORKS

Gray Tree

The Gray Tree (1912) 116.3 cm x 145.5 cm

Oil on canvas Gemeente museum, The Hague

The Gray Tree exemplifies Mondrian's early transition toward abstraction, and his application of Cubist principles to represent the landscape. The three-dimensional tree has been reduced to lines and planes using a limited palette of grays and black. This painting is one in a series of works Mondrian created, in which the early trees are naturalistically represented, while the later works have become progressively more abstract. In the later paintings, the lines of the tree are reduced until the form of the tree is barely discernable and becomes secondary to the overall composition of vertical and horizontal lines. Here, there is still an allusion to the tree as it appears in nature, but one can already see Mondrian's interest in reducing the form to a structured organization of lines. This step was invaluable to Mondrian's development of his mature style of pure abstraction.

WORKS

Pier and Ocean

Pier and Ocean (1915) 33 1/2 x 42 1/2 in

Oil on canvas State Museum Kroller

Muller, Otterlo

Pier and Ocean marks a definitive step in Mondrian's path toward pure abstraction. Here he has eliminated diagonal and curved lines as well as color; the only true reference to nature is found within the title and the horizontal lines that allude to the horizon and the verticals that evoke the pilings of the pier. The rhythms created by the alternating lines and their varying lengths presages Mondrian's mature dynamic, depicting an asymmetrical balance as well as the pulse of the ocean waves. Reviewing this work, Theo van Doesburg wrote: "Spiritually, this work is more important than the others. It conveys the impression of peace; the stillness of the soul." Mondrian had begun to translate what he saw as the underlying ordered patterns of nature into a pure abstract language.

WORKS

Composition with Color Planes

Composition with Color Planes (1917)

49 x 61.2 cm Oil on canvas

Museum of Modern Art, New York

While still in Holland during World War I, Mondrian helped found the group of artists and architects called De Stijl, and it was during this period he refined his style of abstraction even further. Composition with Color Planes shows his break with Analytic Cubism and exemplifies the principles he expressed in his essay "The New Plastic in Painting.“ Here, Mondrian has moved away from the Cubist palette of ochres, grays, and browns, opting instead for muted reds, yellows and blues - a clear precursor to his mature palette that focused on primary colors. The blocks of color float on a white ground and no longer reference a physical object in nature such as a tree or building, while all reference to illusionistic depth has been eliminated. The composition is based on color and balance and gives even weight to all areas of the picture surface, moving toward the precise balance of his mature canvases.

WORKS

Composition with Large Red Plane, Yellow, Black, Gray, and Blue

1921 Oil on canvas

Gemeente museum, The Hague

Mondrian began to create the definitive abstract paintings for which he is best known. He limited his palette to white, black, gray, and the three primary colors, with the composition constructed from thick, black horizontal and vertical lines that delineated the outlines of the various rectangles of color or reserve. The simplification of the pictorial elements was essential for Mondrian's creation of a new abstract art, distinct from Cubism and Futurism. The assorted blocks of color and lines of differing width create rhythms that ebb and flow across the surface of the canvas, echoing the varied rhythm of modern life. The composition is asymmetrical, as in all of his mature paintings, with one large dominant block of color, here red, balanced by distribution of the smaller blocks of yellow, blue gray, and white around it. This style has been quoted by many artists and designers in all aspects of culture since the 1920s.

WORKS

Broadway Boogie-Woogie

1942-43, 50 x 50“ Oil on canvas

Museum of Modern Art, New York

This canvas presents the viewer with the culmination in Mondrian's life-long pursuit of conveying the order that underlies the natural world through purely abstract forms on a flat picture plane. Broadening the use of his basic pictorial vocabulary of lines, squares and primary colors, the black grid has been replaced by lines of color interspersed with blocks of solid color. This is inspired by the vitality of New York City and the tempo of jazz music. The asymmetrical distribution of the brightly colored squares within the yellow lines echoes the varied pace of life in the bustling metropolis, one can almost see the people hurrying down the sidewalk as taxi cabs hustle from stop-light to stop-light. Broadway Boogie- Woogie alludes to life within the city. Mondrian's last complete painting, demonstrates his continued stylistic innovation while remaining true to his theories and format.

WORKS

Abstractor Self Portraits Dorpskerk

Wood with beech trees Pollard Willows on the Gein Lozenge Composition with Red, Black, Blue, and Yellow

IMPACT

"I wish to approach truth as closely as is possible, and therefore I abstract everything until I arrive at the fundamental

quality of objects."

-Piet Mondrian

Himanshu Bansal 10020516