New reality from Piet Mondrian. Piet Mondrian
Stick, stick, cucumber, it turned out... an original and absurdly simplified style Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan. He deliberately created his masterpieces from elementary lines and shapes. As you know, everything ingenious is simple, and this technique made the artist’s style recognizable at first sight.
Mondrian is best known for his work in the early 1920s, where he simplified all forms to horizontal and vertical lines. The artist filled the resulting rectangles with the main colors of the palette. Pete presented his sense of the world in the form of opposites: vertical and horizontal, plus and minus, dynamics and statics, masculine and feminine.
The asymmetrical balance of his figures symbolizes the unity and mutual complementarity of universal forces. The result is complete abstraction. This series of paintings so shocked the art world that attempts to imitate Mondrian's genius are still found today - in fashion, architecture, topography and design.
The paradoxical simplicity of Mondrian's lines and images became the main idea of the Dutch De Stijl movement. The philosophy of this association consisted of combining art and reality. Thus, a new universal language of creativity was born, understandable to everyone.
Here are the most famous allusions to his work: in the 30s, French fashion designer Lola Prusac created a line of suitcases and bags with inserts of red, blue and yellow leather squares. And in 1965, Yves Henri Donat Mathieu-Saint-Laurent presented the famous “Mondrian” dresses - without collar and sleeves, made of knitted fabric, with decor in the form of “quotes” from the paintings of the abstract artist.
In search of a direction that was comfortable for himself, Pete went through the stages of Luminism and Cubism. And finally, neoplasticism is born - its own branch abstract art. Together with other artists from De Stijl, Mondrian promoted an all-consuming abstraction with limited color freedom. Their association in every possible way promoted the idea of a utopian style, consisting of flat forms and dynamic tension in the works. Much later, in the 60s, this idea was picked up by minimalists, choosing clear lines and limited choice of colors.
Mondrian's family was unimaginably far from art. Pete's father, the director of a local school, barely made ends meet, trying to feed the future great artist, two more sons, a daughter and his wife, who was in poor health. But, despite this, the family treated the child’s talent with understanding, and at the age of twenty, Pete moved from Amersfoort to Amsterdam, where his studies at the Academy of Arts began.
At twenty-five, Mondrian had to return to his home country for almost a year. parents' house- the young artist suffered severe health damage during a riotous vacation and was forced to fight pneumonia. Piet became isolated, but the solitude bore fruit: during this time he painted a series of naturalistic landscapes of Winterswijk. Of course, they have nothing in common with the abstract paintings that would later bring him fame. The early Mondrian adhered to conservative traditions, but even then a clearly expressed personal style was visible in his works. He even painted people as static, often using a ruler.
This feature brought him a lot of suffering. Mondrian tried twice to receive a prestigious Rome scholarship, but failed both times. Moreover, he only achieved a devastating review of his work. Critics accused the artist of lacking talent and skill and the inability to depict people alive. This is partly how it was - the background and characters did not fit well with each other, the lifeless silhouettes seemed to be glued to the canvas.
The first impetus for abstraction was Mondrian's entry into the Dutch Theosophical Society. The artist clearly liked mysticism, but he always strived to reproduce the spiritual more realistically. That is why in no case should he be classified as a Theosophist.
But the epicenter of changes occurred in 1911. It was he who became the most important in Mondrian’s career. The artist visited the exhibition contemporary art in Amsterdam, where he was deeply impressed by the works of the Cubists and. Immediately after this, Mordrian moved to France and radically changed his attitude towards creativity. He began working in the genre of high cubism and surpassed his predecessors. Pete refused to depict objects and natural elements. His cubism is ascetic, objectless, almost colorless. With the help of geometry, Mondrian tried to explore the laws of the universe and convey them through painting.
Most scandalous work Pete became a painting called “Victory Boogie-Woogie,” painted in 1944.
Today it is considered the embodiment of neo-plasticism and signature Mondrian style. While working on it, the artist fell ill with pneumonia and died without completing what he started. However, it is believed that it is “Victory” that conveys the author’s innermost dreams and aspirations. This is the crown of his creation.
Over the seventy years of his life, Mondrian changed the direction of his work several times, moved a lot - Holland, France, England, America - and showed his works at his only exhibition in New York shortly before his death. Today the artist is unanimously recognized as the founding father of abstract art. Pete's work is highly respected by researchers. But its influence on world culture goes far beyond visual arts and covers all types creative activity modernity.
Pieter Cornelis (Piet) Mondriaan, IPA: [ˈpit ˈmɔndrijaːn], from 1911 - Mondrian, [ˈmɔndrijɑn]; March 7, 1872 (18720307), Amersfoort, Netherlands - February 1, 1944, New York ) - Dutch artist, who, simultaneously with Kandinsky and Malevich, laid the foundation for abstract painting.
Piet Mondrian was born in the small Dutch town of Amersfoort. Mondrian’s father, the director of a local school, could not provide for his family, but he was sensitive to his son’s talent, and at the age of 20 Mondrian left to study in Amsterdam.
Started as an art teacher in primary school, early works- landscapes of Holland in the spirit of impressionism. I became interested in the theosophy of H. P. Blavatsky. He deeply embraced the quest of Cubism at the Cubist Exhibition in Amsterdam (1911). In 1912 he moved to Paris and, as a sign of the beginning of a new life, changed his surname to “Mondrian”.
He spent the years of the First World War in his homeland, in 1915 he became close to the artist Theo van Doesburg, and together with him founded the “Style” movement (Dutch De Stijl) and the art magazine of the same name. The magazine became the organ of neoplasticism - the utopia of a new plastic culture as the utmost consciousness in the scrupulous transmission of generalized beauty and truth using the most ascetic means, basic, primary colorful tones, lines, forms.
Mondrian consistently developed this non-figurative direction in France, where he lived from 1919 to 1938, then in Great Britain, and from 1940 in the USA.
During the American period of his work, Mondrian tried to adapt the principles of neoplasticism to convey dynamic effects (“Boogie-Woogie on Broadway”).
Mondrian died of pneumonia on February 1, 1944 and was buried in Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.
The design of Mondrian's New York studio, in which he worked for only a few months and which was carefully recreated by his friends and followers on photo and film, became, as it were, last job masters, these “Murals” were shown at exhibitions in New York, London, Tokyo, Sao Paulo, and Berlin. Mondrian's Paris apartment, his pipe and glasses are depicted in the minimalist photographs of Andre Kertesz (1926), which became emblematic of modern photography.
Mondrian called for the “denaturalization” of art, the abandonment of natural forms and the transition to pure abstraction. Beginning in 1913, Mondrian's paintings developed toward abstract matrices consisting of black horizontal and vertical lines. Gradually, the arrangement of lines on the canvas was ordered to such an extent that they began to look like regular grids with cells. The cells were painted with primary colors, that is, red, blue and yellow. Thus, the structure of the picture was formed by the dichotomies color - non-color, vertical - horizontal, large surface- a small surface, the unity of which was supposed to symbolize the balance of forces in the harmony of the universe.
Despite the extreme limitations of visual means, Mondrian’s work had big influence on his contemporaries and gave birth to new directions in painting and graphics.
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Many articles and many words have been said about how art and design relate. Should design be considered art or not? And yet, most design theorists agreed that - yes, count!
There is even such a direction as art design. Items related to it are low-functional and controversial, but as a rule, they quickly become collectibles and rapidly increase in price.
And, of course, great artists have always inspired designers to create a variety of design objects.
Piet Mondrian is certainly one of the brightest artists 20th century, one of the founders of abstract art and theorists of new art influenced design like no other.
His perfect geometric abstractions fit perfectly on the surface of any objects, which instantly rise from a boring utilitarian object to the heights of an art object, as well as an object of admiration and lust.
Well, for example, girls... How do you like these dresses from Yves Saint Laurent? Collection "Mondrian", 1965 
Isn’t it true, they are quite relevant today, the price for the few remaining originals is off the charts!
And these are the creations of modern fashion designers...
In 1926, Mondrian sketched the interior of a room of the future as he imagined it. 25 years later, New York gallery The Pace brought the artist's vision to life by creating this room in the original color scheme artist.
Sketch... 
Embodiment... 
However, if we start from the very beginning, then in the beginning the chair was one of the first who warmly accepted the ideas of neoplasticism (a drop of “-isms”) and the De Stijl group, which was founded by M., became Gerrit Rietveld, who in 1917 created the famous “red and blue chair”, which later became an icon of constructivism.
By him, the Schroeder House in Utrecht, which can be seen in this cartoon, also resembles a three-dimensional painting by Mondrian.
By the way, in St. Petersburg, on the Moika (this is a river) for a long time there was a box house painted in the style of Mondrian, but it has now been demolished.
And this chair “The Charles” for Moooi by my favorite Marcel Wanders, also, by the way, Dutch, the chair is old, but the upholstery, a dedication to Mondrian, is completely fresh, if I’m not mistaken, it was just presented at the Milan Salon.
Will the borscht prepared in this kitchen be special - that’s the question?
And, if you are an esthete, then maybe it will be more pleasant for you to carry out water procedures in such a bathroom? And, to work in such an office?
If you are in dire need of art in the interior of your home or office - masking tape and a few cans of paint - and a couple of hours of work. And now, you are the owner of a Mondrian-style wall. Effective and inexpensive!
Pop culture also did not remain without the influence of the artist...
How do you like the Mondrian and The Simpsons wine? Or a piece of art cupcake? It’s impossible not to Instagram..) I even found a can of Coca-Cola “a la Mondrian”.
Furniture, bags, pillows, posters, games for children and even (!!!) manicures in the style of Mondrian painting continue to triumphantly march around the world.
Contrasting primary colors, which are characteristic of M.'s style, are always dramatic, which means they cannot but evoke emotions. And everything that provokes strong emotions is extremely in demand today, because we are fed up and bored.
So, dear designers! If you feel a crisis of ideas, turn to the eternal - to art, and you will find happiness and inspiration!
Another portion of Dutch art - old and new
Piet Mondrian Self-Portrai 1900
Dutch artist who, simultaneously with Kandinsky and Malevich, laid the foundation abstract painting. His paintings, which are combinations of rectangles and lines, are examples of the most rigorous, uncompromising geometric abstraction in modern painting.
Pete was born into a family with strict Calvinist beliefs. After leaving Father's house, Pete goes to study art in Amsterdam, where in 1892–1894 he attends the Amsterdam Academy of Arts and lives in the atmosphere of the enlightened and educated elite.
Mondrian's first works were painted in a realistic style. He started as an art teacher in elementary school; his early works included landscapes of Holland in the spirit of impressionism.
Piet Mondrian Pollard Willows on the Gein. 1902-04
Piet Mondrian On the Lappenbrink. 1899
Piet Mondrian spent a decade and a half painting traditional realistic landscapes, capturing plains and clouds, windmills, canals and everything else that is well known to every museum visitor from countless paintings by Dutch landscape painters over many centuries.
In May 1909, Mondrian joined the Dutch branch of the Theosophical Society.
Piet Mondrian Avond (Evening). Red Tree. 1908
Piet Mondrian Passionflower 1908 Gemeentemuseum, Hague
Piet Mondrian Windmill in Sunlight 1908
Piet Mondrian Amaryllis. 1910
Piet Mondrian Church near Domburg. 1910-11
In 1910, Mondrian made his first trip to Paris, where he became acquainted with the work of the avant-garde.
In the autumn of 1911, at an exhibition of Cubists in Amsterdam, he became acquainted with the work of Picasso and Braque, and it had a great influence on the formation of the young artist.
At the beginning of the twentieth century in Europe, the first, still naive, but full of strength avant-garde movements were already making themselves known with might and main. In Holland, one might not have noticed the ongoing artistic revolution, but artist friends advised Mondrian not to linger in his quiet country, but to go to Paris, the then capital of art and thought.
In the spring of 1912, Mondrian moved to Paris and began working in the manner of “high cubism.”
Piet Mondrian. Still Life with Gingerpot I, 1911
He refuses in his paintings the slightest hints of plot, atmosphere, modeling and spatial depth and gradually consciously limited means of expression. In 1914, the first completely non-objective canvases of the forty-two-year-old artist appeared.
In the same year, the artist returned to Holland to his father, who was dying, and remained in his homeland throughout the First World War.
At the end of 1915, Mondrian's non-objective experiments found a response among young artists Theo van Doesburg (1883-1931) and Bart van der Leck, the architect Oud, as well as the Russian constructivist El Lissitzky (1890-1947), who tried to find a synthesis of painting with modern architecture.
Mondrian became close to van Doesburg and together with him founded the Style movement (De Stijl) in 1917, which also included Oud, Rietveld and van Eesteren.
They also created and edited an art magazine of the same name. Mondrian and his like-minded people considered themselves classics of the twentieth century and came up with the name “neoplasticism” for their movement. Mondrian writes manifestos proclaiming the need for a strictly geometric order in art.
During these years, the artist built compositions based on a freely constructed spatial grid that filled the canvas. At the same time, for some reason Mondrian painted his next self-portrait in a realistic manner.
Piet Mondrian. Self-Portrait 1918
In 1919, the artist again left for Paris, where he lived until 1938.
By 1920, Mondrian's style was fully formed. The artist meticulously and consistently developed the non-figurative direction of painting. During the last thirty, most fruitful years of his life, he performed sacred acts on canvases, painted them into rectangles and squares and painted the resulting geometric fields either with intense bright colors or with lightweight and transparent shades of white, gray, beige or bluish. I think a couple of paintings will be enough to imagine the abstract work of the artist.
Piet Mondrian Composition in Color A. 1917
Piet Mondrian Composition with Red, Yellow, Blue and Black. 1921
Mondrian's perseverance and consistency are rewarded with exhibitions, which in the 20s make him famous in France, Holland and around the world.
In 1921, an exhibition of Mondrian took place in Paris, which received great resonance, and in 1926 - an exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum in New York.
His paintings are eagerly bought by American collectors and exhibited in American museums.
In 1939, Mondrian moved to England, and in 1940 to New York.
Having moved from Europe, engulfed in war and terror Nazi occupation, to a calm and prosperous America, Mondrian abandoned the color black and avoided everything sharp and contrasting. New York skyscrapers and jazz found their response in the rectangular structures of neoplasticism.
Piet Mondrian New York City, 3. 1941
In one of the artist’s last works, “Boogie-Woogie on Broadway” (New York, Museum of Modern Art), a tendency appeared to move away from the strict classical principles of the avant-garde. In this work, small squares are dotted across a grid of lines, giving the entire composition a new syncopic complexity and playful rhythm.
Piet Mondrian Broadway Boogie-Woogie. 1942-43
Exactly a year before his death (1943), the artist, with the help of his American admirers, exhibited his paintings at his large personal exhibition in New York.
Mondrian died in New York on February 1, 1944 from pneumonia.
The design of Mondrian's New York studio, in which he worked for only a few months, became, as it were, the master's last work; these “Murals” were shown at exhibitions in New York, London, Tokyo, Sao Paulo and Berlin.
Wikipedia materials used, articles Doctor of Art History Alexander Yakimovich, sites
“There is nothing more concrete than line, color, plane,” these words of Piet Mondrian fully describe last period his creativity. "Geometric" paintings, the space of which is filled with ideal squares and rectangles of pure colors - the apogee of life and creativity Dutch artist. One of the founders of abstract art, Mondrian evolved in his work along with the 20th century: from the impressionist “spots of light” through the sharp angles of cubism, he came to own style already at the very end of life, continuing to create until the very last minute.
On Saturday at Tretyakov Gallery on Krymsky Val, as part of the Russia-Holland cross-cultural year, the exhibition “Piet Mondrian. The Path to Abstraction” opens, within which about 40 works by the artist from the collection will be presented Municipal Museum The Hague, where the largest collection of his works is located. The exhibition, which will last until November 24, promises to become one of the most important cultural events of this fall and the object of close attention of city residents. Before joining the checkout line, the Weekend project invites readers to trace the evolution of Mondrian's work through the example of five of his iconic works.
"Mill in sunlight"(Mill in Sunlight). 1908
Piet Mondrian
Piet Mondrian. "Mill in the Sunlight" 1908
The work, which is now in the collection of the Municipal Museum of The Hague, can be considered one of the most striking illustrations early period Mondrian's creativity and his short-term passion for impressionism. In this picture, the conflict in the artist’s work is already clearly visible; bright pigments, the influence of Fauvism and Van Gogh’s works seem to be opposed to the traditional Dutch motif, so often found in the works of his predecessors and contemporaries keen on the classics. The yellow and blue background contrasts with the red and blue mill, painted with deliberately rough strokes. Even in this work one can see a certain schematic and geometric composition, which the artist would come to much later. It will not be possible to see this particular work of the artist at an exhibition in Moscow, but other works of this period will be presented at the Tretyakov Gallery.
Triptych "Evolution". 1911
Piet Mondrian
Piet Mondrian. Triptych "Evolution". 1911
From the mid-1900s, Mondrian became interested in symbolism and the theosophical movements of Rudolf Steiner and Helena Blavatsky. The influence of this passion is visible, for example, in the work “Piety” from 1908, which can be seen at the exhibition. Muscovites will not see this time, unfortunately, the most important work this period - the triptych "Evolution". A landmark work by the artist, in which “theosophical symbolism is combined with the rigidity of lines.” The painting shows "three stages of knowledge", which reflects religious views and moral principles Mondrian in that period.
"The Gray Tree". 1912
Piet Mondrian
Piet Mondrian. "Gray Tree" 1912
In 1911, Mondrian went to Paris, where he lived until July 1914. This is the period of his passion for cubism, the works of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. During this period he gives preference graphic works, leaving color of secondary importance in defiance of the coloristic cubism of Fernand Léger and Robert Delaunay. During this period, Mondrian gradually abandoned the three-dimensionality of the image, leaving only lines on the plane of the canvas. At the same time, the artist does not abandon his long-standing series of variations of the tree motif; some of these works can also be seen at the exhibition in the Tretyakov Gallery. In the 1912 work “The Gray Tree” one can already see how curved lines are replaced by horizontals and verticals, still interrupted by oblique lines, which Mondrian abandoned only in 1914. This motif - the relationship between the vertical (male) and horizontal (female) - appeared in his work a little earlier, but later the artist continued to search for ideal harmony between these two principles in his works.
"Composition with Red, Yellow, Blue and Black." 1921
provided by the Public Relations Department of the State Tretyakov Gallery
Piet Mondrian. "Composition with Red, Yellow, Blue and Black." 1921
The artist's most recognizable works are his late abstract works, the titles of which differ mainly in numbering. His “geometric” painting - neoplasticism, as the author himself called his painting system - largely revolutionized the ideas of his contemporaries and descendants about art. His most famous work in this direction is “Composition with Red, Yellow, Blue and Black,” written in 1921. It is this work that is remembered first when people talk about the “Mondrian style”, and it can be seen at an exhibition in Moscow. In the 1960s, Yves Saint Laurent, inspired by the artist’s style (and “Composition” of 1921 in particular), created a whole series of laconic dresses with abstract geometric patterns, which have now become one of the recognizable symbols of the fashion house.
"Victory Boogie Woogie" 1942-1944
Piet Mondrian
Piet Mondrian. "Boogie Woogie Victory" 1942-1944
Mondrian completed this painting in 1943, shortly after he moved to New York (in 1938 he fled to America from fascism-ridden Europe). Art critics call this work the culmination of the artist’s style and the principles of neoplasticism. Unlike the early abstract works, the squares here are smaller and brighter, there is not a single black spot, and the cells of pure color only set off the white space of the canvas. This work captures the bustling sights and sounds of New York City in the 1940s. home distinctive feature The painting is diamond-shaped, the canvas is rotated 45 degrees. The painting is now in the collection of the Guggenheim Museum in The Hague. This last piece the artist he was working on before being hospitalized. Mondrian died of pneumonia on February 1, 1944 and was buried in Brooklyn.
You can learn more about the artist’s work at the lecture “Piet Mondrian: Pioneer of Abstract Painting,” which will be given by Brigitte Leal, an expert on the artist’s paintings, head of the Museum of Modern Art in Paris.
The material was prepared based on information from open sources
