Piet Mondrian Research Paper

Piet Mondrian was born March 7th, 1872. He was born in Amersfoort, Netherlands into an artistic family. He was the second child in his family, and was exposed to art from a very young age. His father was a qualified drawing teacher, and his uncle was also a talented artists. The young Mondrian was often found painting and drawing along the river Gein. In 1892, Mondrian enrolled in the academy of Fine Arts in Amsterdam. Qualifying as a primary school teacher, Mondrian taught as a teacher for primary education; however, he frequently practiced painting. During this point of his artistic career, Mondrian focused on painting landscapes, and used impressionism or naturalism. He then experimented with various styles and techniques on his …show more content…
He dropped the extra a in Mondriaan, and changed the signature on his painting to signify the change in his life and artistic style. He practiced cubism and further developed in his artwork during his time there. Mondrian was forced to stay in the Netherlands in 1914, as World War 1 was underway, and remained there until 1919. While he was there, he met Theo Van Doesburg and Bart van der Leck, and they drastically changed Mondrian’s art style. Van der Leck's use of only primary colors in his art greatly influenced Mondrian. Along with Van der Leck, the two of them wrote De Stijl. In which he defines his style called neoplasticism. This was the first time he expressed 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 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 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 …show more content…
Mondrian began producing grid-based paintings in late 1919, and in 1920, the style for which he came to be renowned began to appear. His early paintings using this form were different from his later ones. Mondrian used thin grey lines, and they faded towards the end of the painting, rather than stopping abruptly. Nearly all the forms are colored, and they are smaller and more numerous than his later works. This evolution in his painting is evident in his lozenge” works that he painted in the 1920’s. These paintings are posted up in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and his artistic method is evident. Mondrian's paintings are not composed of perfectly flat planes of color, as one might expect. Brush strokes are evident throughout, although they are subtle, and the artist appears to have used different techniques for the various elements. The colored forms have the most evident brush strokes, while the black lines are the thickest forms. In the 1930’s the use of minimalism in his paintings is the most evident. The thick black lines dominate the painting; and more white forms are left. Mondrian also used double lines, which excited him because he thought they added another dimension to his

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