| |  | Piet Mondrian |  |
| "Vertical and horizontal lines are the expression of two opposing forces; they exist everywhere and dominate everything; their reciprocal action constitutes Life." *** Mondrian, Piet (1872-1944) was born Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan in Amersfoort, the Netherlands. He studied at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam, from 1892 to 1897. Until 1908, Mondrian’s work incorporated successive influences of academic landscape and still-life painting, Dutch Impressionism, and Symbolism. In 1909 and 1910, he experimented with Pointillism and by 1911 had begun to work in a Cubist mode. After seeing original Cubist works by Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso at the first Moderne Kunstkring exhibition in 1911 in Amsterdam, Mondrian decided to move to Paris. There, from 1912 to 1914, he began to develop an independent abstract style. | |
Mondrian was visiting the Netherlands when World War I broke out and prevented his return to Paris. During the war years in Holland, he further reduced his colors and geometric shapes and formulated his non-objective "Neo-Plastic" style. In 1917, Mondrian became one of the founders of De Stijl. This group extended its principles of abstraction and simplification beyond painting and sculpture to architecture and graphic and industrial design. World War II forced Mondrian to move to London in 1938 and then to settle in New York in October 1940. In New York, he joined American Abstract Artists and continued to publish texts on Neo-Plasticism. His late style evolved significantly in response to the city. In 1942, his first solo show took place at the Valentine Dudensing Gallery, New York. Mondrian died February 1, 1944, in New York. |
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|  | | "Composition with Red, Yellow and Blue" (1921) Oil on canvas, 39 x 35 cm - 15.4 x 13.8 in. | | | |
|  | | "Composition No. 10" (1939-42) Oil on canvas, 80 x 73 cm - 31.5 x 28.7 in. Private collection. | | | |
|  | | "Composition with Gray and Light Brown" (1918) Oil on canvas, 80.2 x 49.9 cm - 31.6 x 19.6 in. Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, USA. | | | |
|  | | "Broadway Boogie Woogie" (1942-43) Oil on canvas, 127 x 127 cm - 50 x 50 in. The Museum of Modern Art, New York City, USA. |
| Text source: unkown. | |
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