Piet Mondrian

Dutch, 1872–1944

BiographyPiet Mondrian (Mondriaan) was born in 1872 in Amersfoort, into a family active in artistic and political circles. Mondrian's father and brothers were all competent painters, and he studied under his uncle Frits Mondriaan, who was a career painter in The Hague. Later he studied at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam and became a member of the St. Luke's and Arti and Amicitiae groups in Amsterdam in 1897. During this period, Mondrian's painting incorporated elements of Symbolism, Impressionism and the Hague School of painting, and the native Dutch landscape was his most common subject.

Mondrian's landscapes became more abstract during a stay in Noordbrabant in 1904 in paintings such as Brabant Farmyard. An exhibition of Vincent van Gogh's work in Amsterdam in 1905 also had a profound impact. A further interest in anthroposophy and theosophy convinced Mondrian that painting could express natural form and simultaneously embody a spiritual dimension. In 1909 Mondrian had a major exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, which established his reputation as a leading Dutch avant-garde artist. During this period, Mondrian was generally labeled a luminist, and by 1910 the influence of Cubism can be seen in his painting.

In 1910, Mondrian moved to Paris where he met Diego Rivera, Fernand Léger, and Georges Braque. During his Paris stay, and later after his return to Amsterdam because of World War I, Mondrian's work became progressively more abstract. After the war, Mondrian was closely associated with the De Stijl movement until 1925. Mondrian's painting became more elemental: a series of diamond-shaped canvases reduced compositions to several lines and planes of color. His use of bold primary colors and black grids gained Mondrian the reputation as the most modern of the modern artists--especially in the United States, where he received sustained private patronage, and was included in the important Cubism and Abstract Art exhibition held in 1936 at The Museum of Modern Art in New York. Mondrian fled the rise of Nazism and moved to London in 1938, before seeking refuge in New York in 1940. In New York he created a series of large works including his last completed painting, Broadway Boogie Woogie (1942-3; The Museum of Modern Art, New York). In 1942, The Museum of Modern Art committed itself to a major Mondrian exhibition, which was held in 1946, two years after the artist's death.