Artist 38: Piet Mondrian

Piet Mondrian was born in 1872 in the Netherlands.  His father was an amateur artist and his uncle was an accomplished artist, both help to teach Mondrian to paint.  In 1892 he enrolled in the National Academy of Fine Arts in Amsterdam.  After three years of training, he used what he learned to support himself by producing scientific drawings and copies of museum paintings.  His art did not stand by itself, because he firmly believed that art and philosophy went hand in hand.  In 1908 he joined the Theosophical Society, which had widespread influence in Europe.  He later left the group, but it highly influenced his utopian ideals, which can be seen in the balance and tension of form and color in his paintings.  Mondrian termed his drive to transform his art as “always further” and as time went on his traditional landscapes began to show a new sense of drama and light.  In 1912 he moved to Paris and allowed cubism to have a large influence on his art, and can be seen as the turning point of his career.  Through his use of cubism, he was attempting to stress the flatness of his paintings.  On a visit to Holland in 1914, World War I broke out and he was unable to return to Paris and the art scene for 5 years.  During this time his curved lines faded from his art as well as the references to objects and nature.  In 1919 he moved back to Paris and was at that time creating his best known iconic abstract paintings.  By the 1920s he was at the height of his artistic purity.