piet mondrian - Bankmed

December 29, 2016

PIET MONDRIAN

Grey Tree

Flowering

Appletree (1912).

call his disciplined, objective pictures emphasizing their non-figurative, formal qualities. While spending World War I in the Netherlands, Mondrian began to adopt a very strict approach to abstract painting, creating grids without any colour as well as works showing patterns of coloured squares without lines. He also published important theoretical writings in Theo van Doesburg's periodical De before returning to Paris in 1919, where he remained until 1938. Back in France, Mondrian developed his trademark Neo-Plasticism, characterized by black lines enclosing areas of grey, white and primary colours. His dynamic, asymmetric compositions explored the relationship between different sections of the canvas with a remarkable tautness and discipline. His aim was to reduce painting to its simplest elements, only using a strictly defined range of lines and shapes, and to achieve a perfect balance on the canvas. Van Doesburg's insistence on using diagonals even forced Mondrian to quit De Stijl in 1925, after which he wreaked his own revenge by creating diamond-shaped paintings that emphasized the horizontal and vertical lines enclosed by the frames. He also became associated with other abstract groups, especially Cercle et Carré and, from 1931, its successor, Abstraction-Création. Mondrian's own studio, of which photographs survive, demonstrated how he attempted to transfer the principles of abstract art to interior design. Although most of his own projects were unrealized, he had an important influence on modernist architects in the 1 930s. This was also a period in which he experimented systematically with his painting, producing increasingly complicated and dynamic compositions. With the approach of World War II, Mondrian left Paris, spending two years in England, where he became friendly with the abstract artist Ben Nicholson. Finally, in 1940, he moved to New York. His experience of the modern metropolis had an energizing influence on his late paintings, above all (1 942-3), which shows a dynamic reaction to the pulsating rhythms of the city.

Book: Great Modern Artists, by: Andy Tuohy with Christopher Masters.