Isabella Alston - Mondrian

PIET MONDRIAN

T&J

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ISBN 978-1-84406-333-8 Hardback
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PIET MONDRIAN

T&J

I S A B E L L A A L S T O N

18721944

P iet Mondrian pioneered the de Stijl movement that emerged in the early 20th century. The movement marked an important evolution in the history of art from an earlier focus on Symbolism and Realism to a new and growing focus on abstraction and Cubism. De Stijl, also referred to as Neo-plasticism, utilized pure geometric forms, such as squares and rectangles, and combined them with bold primary colors, as well as black and white, in order to convey the harmoniousness of life in the midst of a disorderly world. The de Stijl movement was groundbreaking because it represented the recognition of the emerging universal interest in expressing abstract notions and concepts through art.

Prior to de Stijl, artistic movements such as Impressionism had begun to embrace some degree of abstraction, primarily in the techniques employed rather than in the forms composing the artwork. For example, Claude Monet showed how color and its application can be used to depict an image in an accurate manner, even if the rendering itself is not created with a technique designed to generate a realistic image. Seurat, working in his style, Pointillism, is another excellent example. Likewise, Vincent van Goghs work illustrates how basic elements, such as brush stroke, can vividly portray the spirit of a painting.

De Stijl, Dutch for The Style, took this concept and ran with it, seeking to achieve the same emotionality in a painting that Expressionism, a precursor of de Stijl in the mid-19th century, sought to convey through use of light and texture, but doing so in a purely abstract manner, relying solely on the most basic elements of paintingshape and color in their most rudimentary formto generate the emotion.

Piet Mondrian was born in Amersfoort, a small town in the Netherlands, on March 7, 1872. He was the younger of two children and was raised in a strict Protestant household. His father for whom he was named, Pieter Cornelius Mondriaan, was the head teacher at a local primary school and also taught drawing. (Piet dropped one a from his name in 1912 after he moved to Paris, although some sources attribute the change to earlier in his career. Regardless, some works created after 1912 are signed with the original spelling of his name.) Thus, Mondrian was exposed to the arts from a very early age.

In 1892, at the age of 20, Mondrian began art studies at the Academy for Fine Art in Amsterdam. Prior to this, he had received his qualifications to teach primary school, following in his fathers footsteps as an educator. Teaching provided his main sourceof income while he pursued his studies in painting and drawing. During this early period of his career, Mondrians work was rather traditional in nature, akin to that of The Hague School, even though he post dated the style.

Photograph of Mondrian, 1889

The Hague school was composed of a group of painters who, as the name suggests, lived and worked in The Hague region of the Netherlands from 1860 to 1890. The styles that best describe their work, including the early work of Mondrian, are Naturalism and Impressionism, both featuring landscapes and other natural or outdoor settings. For nearly a decade after graduation from art school in 1897, Mondrian primarily produced drawings in the style of Naturalism, although they are tinged with influences of Dutch Impressionism and Symbolism.

Mondrian was especially interested in flowers. The drawing Chrysanthemum (190809) is one of approximately 150 drawings and paintings of flowers that Mondrian completed during his lifetime. He wrote that his interest was on the singular flower, rather than on the bouquet, because it allowed him to capture a flowers natural plasticity. This assertion is important because it hints at Mondrians later theoretical approach to art, Neo-plasticism. Chrysanthemum incorporates Post-Impressionist influences in its lines as well as in the skewed placement of the flower in the frame and can be viewed as a reference to the work of his contemporary, Vincent van Gogh.

The chrysanthemum flower symbolizes Mondrians developing interest in modern Theosophy, a spiritual movement founded by Russian occultist Helena Blavatsky in 1875 with the purpose of helping individuals find inner enlightenment. Blavatsky is credited with founding the basis of what has come to be known as New Age thought; her motto was There is no religion higher than truth. Theosophy incorporates teachings from the various realms of cosmic, planetary, and human evolution, as well as science, religion, and mythology.

Chrysanthemum (190809), Charcoal on paper, 25.4 28.7 cm, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York City

Mondrians motivation was to depict the flower in all its external beauty, yet to delve further into its inner beauty to explore a more esoteric plane of expression. This goal mirrors his personal desire of reaching inner beauty through spiritual advancement as inspired by the teachings of Theosophy. Mondrians numerous flower studies and his interest in the chrysanthemum, in particular, may also have derived from a symbolic depiction of human mortality in the tradition of early Western European literature. In addition, in the Far East the chrysanthemum has long been associated with the emperor-like qualities of morality, dignity, and spiritual strength. Mondrian was likely exposed to the influence of the Far East through Theosophys incorporation of the teachings of Eastern religions and philosophies.

Throughout his career, Mondrians art was colored by the primary tenants of the Theosophical Society: to create a universal brotherhood in which neither sex, race, creed, caste, or color would define an individual; to encourage the study of comparative religion, philosophy, and science; and to study the inherent power of nature as well as the unknown aspects of both the universe and man. Mondrian as an artist sought to depict the essence of the world around him in the same way that Blavatsky sought to explore the essence of the world, seen and unseen, around her. Their interests ran parallel in the sense that both Mondrian and Blavatsky wanted to find the truth and to seek an understanding of how to communicate newly discovered truths to the rest of the world. From his earliest Symbolist works, Mondrians art was centered on his search for certain metaphysical and spiritual truths.