Abstract Art Abstract: –A term generally used to describe art that is not representational or based on external reality or nature. –Abstract art seeks to break away from traditional representation of physical objects. It explores the relationships of forms and colors

Piet Mondrian ( )

Piet Mondrian

Born in Holland - Grew up in a strict Calvinist environment. Early Years: Studied at the Academy of Amsterdam: - Influenced by the Dutch artistic tradition e.g. Rembrandt Piet Mondrian

Earliest works: - Mainly lyrical landscapes Sought to express a mood. Used a taut and united composition. Rejected romantic effects and attractive-looking details. Piet Mondrian Windmill 1905/6 Oil on canvas

Piet Mondrian Dusk 1890 Oil on canvas Trees on the Gein 1902/5 Oil on canvas

Piet Mondrian Evident in Mondrian’s early work: - Preoccupation with geometric forms & linear patterns: ~ Made use of : ~ The play of horizontals and verticals ~ Symmetrical arrangements ~ Effects of light & gradations of colour.

Piet Mondrian The Red Tree 1908 Vincent van Gogh Cypresses 1889

Piet Mondrian One of the most important in Mondrian’s series on the tree -- an example of monumentality. - Reduced a leafless tree to rhythms of colours and lines. - Interpreted his impression of reality, transformed it into an idiom of his own: all the details of the tree’s appearance are straightened out on the pictorial surface, so that linear structure of the brush strokes produces an almost completely flat impression. The Red Tree 1908

Piet Mondrian - Colours are reduced to contrasts of red and blue, which symbolically represents a balance between the tragic and the serene: Blue suggested infinity (referenced from Van Gogh) and calm and is used to overcome the violence which is suggested by red. - Influence of Van Gogh further found in the expressive brushwork. - Ignored sense of distance but emphasized division of surface into colours united by movement. The Red Tree 1908

Piet Mondrian The Red Mill 1911 * Theme = The place of the individual in a larger unity ~ Expressed an inward-directed calm, the still-solitude of man in the midst of the universe. ~ The mill looks almost human, with a trunk and uplifted head. Through extreme simplification of colour and form, Mondrian achieved a monumental quality that makes of the mill a symbol of a world view.

Piet Mondrian Still Life with Gingerpot I 1911/12 Between 1911 and 1914: - Lived in Paris - Greatly influenced by Analytical Cubism (the work of Picasso and Braque) Georges Braque Violin & Jug 1910

Piet Mondrian Still Life with Gingerpot II Objects are organized and reduced to pictorial signs. - Colour is subordinated to compositional unity

Piet Mondrian The Gray Tree 1912 Constructed composition of curved lines, in light gray tints. Essential aspect = Structure, the methodology used to control the arbitrariness of nature. Used method of analytical cubism to reduce forms of objects to facets and reproduced their volume on the pictorial surface by means of superimposed planes.

Piet Mondrian Composition No. II, Composition in line & colour 1913 Flowering Apple Tree 1912

Piet Mondrian Blue Façade 1914

Piet Mondrian Composition 10 in Black and White Pier & Ocean (1915) Black horizontal & vertical dashes are painted on a gray ground. Sometimes touching or intersecting to form plus-minus signs Contained reference to nature ~ Broken, delicately dislocated grids echo the rippling of waves.

Piet Mondrian “Cubism did not accept the logical consequences of its own discoveries; it was not developing abstraction towards its ultimate goal, the expression of pure reality.” ~ Mondrian

Piet Mondrian 1917: - Founded De Stijl (Dutch for The Style) art movement with other artists. - Abandoned all reference to subject matter: ~ No longer began with an accidental fragment of nature. ~ Started from the principle that the absolute harmony he sought could be constructed only by means that were abstract.

CHARACTERISTICS of DE STIJL art: - Entirely abstract: ~ Total rejection of representation. - Limited expressive elements to those which had universal validity & could convey order and harmony: - Use of only: ~ The straight line ~ The right angle ~ 3 primary colours -- red, blue & yellow ~ supplemented by white, black and gray. Theo van Doesburg Pure Painting 1920 Oil on canvas

Piet Mondrian Composition with Large Blue Plane, Red, Black, Yellow, and Gray 1921 Neo-Plasticism

Piet Mondrian - Created work with compositions of horizontal and vertical lines and primary colours, models of complete harmony. - A system of broad black lines ruled the canvas into rectangles filled with colours. No two rectangles are the same size or shape. - Coloured areas are weighed such that they counterbalanced one another. - Dynamic expression is achieved, together with serene harmony.

Piet Mondrian Last works: In 1940: Moved to New York - A new rhythm and excitement entered his last works, based on his experience there. - Black lines are replaced by coloured bands or by a rhythmic sequence of little blocks of colour. New York City I 1942

Piet Mondrian Broadway Boogie-Woogie Small blocks of red, blue, gray and yellow were added to give a new tempo, movement or rhythm. ~ Suggested flashing lights encountered in the city. - Liveliness due to Mondrian’s encounter with : * Boogie-woogie music * Experience of the daily rhythm of New York