Piet Mondrian

Mondrian was one of the pioneers of 20th-century abstract art. He changed his artistic direction from figurative painting to an increasingly abstract style, which was eventually reduced to simple geometric elements.

Piet began painting as a child and did not stop doing so until his death. His first teachers were his father Peter Cornelius and uncle Fritz Mondrian. He also received the education to be an elementary school teacher. In 1892, the young artist began his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Amsterdam. For many years, Mondrian painted in the techniques of his contemporaries.

Together with Theo van Doesburg, Mondrian co-founded the art group “De Stijl”. The artist also created a “non-representational form”, which he named Neoplasticism.

The most famous paintings in Mondrian’s catalogue were done using three primary colours (red, blue and yellow) and three “non-colours” (black, white and grey). All these works are strictly geometric; they contain only vertical and horizontal lines.

Key ideas:

– Mondrian’s works were highly utopian. The artist was concerned with a search for universal values and aesthetics.

– The artist maintained that art should be above reality, “otherwise it would have no value for a man”.

– In 1914, the artist wrote: “Art is higher than reality and has no direct relation to reality. To approach the spiritual in art, one will make as little use as possible of reality, because reality is opposed to the spiritual. We find ourselves in the presence of abstract art.”

– Mondrian claimed that a “denaturalization” of art, a rejection of natural forms and a transition to pure abstraction are needed.