1. Mondrian and Primary Colors
Presentation modified and prepared by Alice Finch 2012
Kindergarten Art Project
West Mercer Elementary Art Enrichment Program

2. Book in separate document

3. Piet Mondrian He was a Dutch painter His art is non-representational.
What do you think that means?
He only used primary colors and white and black.
What are the primary colors?
He was an important contributor to the De Stijl art movement and group, which was founded by Theo van Doesburg. He evolved a non-representational form which he termed Neo-Plasticism. This consisted of white ground, upon which was painted a grid of vertical and horizontal black lines and the three primary colors.[
Unlike the Cubists, Mondrian still attempted to reconcile his painting with his spiritual pursuits; and, in 1913, he began to fuse his art and his theosophical studies into a theory that signaled his final break from representational painting. While Mondrian was visiting home in 1914, World War I began, forcing him to remain in The Netherlands for the duration of the conflict. During this period, he stayed at the Laren artist's colony, there meeting Bart van der Leck and Theo van Doesburg, who were both undergoing their own personal journeys toward Abstraction. Van der Leck's use of only primary colors in his art greatly influenced Mondrian. After a meeting with Van der Leck in 1916, Mondrian wrote, "My technique which was more or less Cubist, and therefore more or less pictorial, came under the influence of his precise method."[12] With Van Doesburg, Mondrian founded De Stijl (The Style), a journal of the De Stijl Group, in which he published his first essays defining his theory, for which he adopted the term Neoplasticism.

4. Mondrian Examples 1 What colors do you see?
Mondrian published “De Nieuwe Beelding in de schilderkunst” (“The New Plastic in Painting”)[13] in twelve installments during 1917 and This was his first major attempt to express his artistic theory in writing. Mondrian's best and most-often quoted expression of this theory, however, comes from a letter he wrote to H.P. Bremmer in 1914:
“I construct lines and color combinations on a flat surface, in order to express general beauty with the utmost awareness. Nature (or, that which I see) inspires me, puts me, as with any painter, in an emotional state so that an urge comes about to make something, but I want to come as close as possible to the truth and abstract everything from that, until I reach the foundation (still just an external foundation!) of things… I believe it is possible that, through horizontal and vertical lines constructed with awareness, but not with calculation, led by high intuition, and brought to harmony and rhythm, these basic forms of beauty, supplemented if necessary by other direct lines or curves, can become a work of art, as strong as it is true.”[14]
When the war ended in 1918, Mondrian returned to France, where he would remain until Immersed in the crucible of artistic innovation that was post-war Paris, he flourished in an atmosphere of intellectual freedom that enabled him to embrace an art of pure abstraction for the rest of his life. Mondrian began producing grid-based paintings in late 1919, and in 1920, the style for which he came to be renowned began to appear.
In the early paintings of this style the lines delineating the rectangular forms are relatively thin, and they are gray, not black. The lines also tend to fade as they approach the edge of the painting, rather than stopping abruptly. The forms themselves, smaller and more numerous than in later paintings, are filled with primary colors, black, or gray, and nearly all of them are colored; only a few are left white.

5. Mondrian Examples 2
What shapes do you see?

6. Mondrian is Everywhere!

7. Today’s Project Make a Mondrian using primary colors
Rectangles and squares in
Red
Blue
Yellow
And white
Black lines

8. Step 1 – Select your pieces
Look at the colored shapes:
Some big, some small
Some squares, some rectangles
Black lines around each shape
1 big white paper
6 black strips
Colored rectangles- pick different sizes
2 red
2 blue
2 yellow

9. Step 2 – White paper Write your name on the back Fold it in half
Short end to short end so it looks like a book
This will be a guideline for your shapes
fold

10. Step 3 – Biggest shape Look at the shapes: Arrange YOUR colors
Mostly white space
Only a few shapes in primary colors
What were they again?
Some big, some small
Yellow rectangle is half of red square
White rectangles half of yellow rectangle
Colors spread out
Arrange YOUR colors
Start with biggest shape
Put one edge of it on center fold
Glue it down

11. Step 4 – Black strips Look at the strips- how are they arranged?
Parallel to the edges
Perpendicular to each other
Arrange YOUR black strips around your first shape
Each colored shape needs black around all 4 sides
1st strip along the center edge (vertical)
Should touch the edge of the colored shape
Glue it down
Then glue top and bottom sides (horizontal)
Then the left side (vertical)

12. Step 5 - Trim the edges Scissors
Trim any extra hanging over the edge of the white paper
Put clippings on paper plate
You might need these later

13. Step 5 – Which shape fits next?
Which of these shapes will fit in the space between the black lines?
Pick a shape that fits in one of your spaces
glue

14. Step 6 – Black strip edges
Use black strip for missing edge
Can go from edge to edge of the white paper -or-
Just the edge of the shape
Trim to size
Glue

15. Step 7 – Other shapes
Find a place for your other colored shapes within the white spaces
Can go off the edge of the paper
Glue
Fit black strips around the edges
Trim

16. Step 8 – Finish edges
Make sure all your colored shapes have black strips on all sides
Turn paper over and trim extra
Put extra bits on paper plate

17. Step 9- Mondrian Masterpiece!
You’ve created a Mondrian using primary colors!