Piet Mondrian

1872-1944

European Artist

Mondrian was born in Amersfoort, Netherlands. He studied at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam. His early works were calm landscapes painted in delicate grays, mauves, and dark greens. Later, he began to experiment with brighter colors; this represented the beginning of his attempts to transcend nature. Moving to Paris in 1911, Mondrian adopted a cubist-influenced style. He moved progressively from semi-naturalism through increased abstraction, arriving finally at a style in which he limited himself to small vertical and horizontal brushstrokes he called neoplasticism. He maintained that art should not concern itself with reproducing images of real objects, but should express only the universal absolutes that underlie reality. When Mondrian moved to New York City in 1940, his style became freer and more rhythmic, and he abandoned severe black lines in favor of lively chain-link patterns of bright colors. Mondrian was one of the most influential 20th-century artists, His theories of abstraction and simplification not only altered the course of painting but also exerted a profound influence on architecture, industrial design, and the graphic arts.