Piet Mondrian was a Dutch painter who is famous for developing the abstract art style of neoplasticism. He began his career as a figurative painter but was influenced by cubism in 1911 to focus on the primary elements of line, color, and plane. This led him to create non-representational compositions using only horizontal and vertical black lines intersecting between colored planes. Mondrian helped found the De Stijl art movement in the Netherlands during WWI which further refined his abstract style using only primary colors and black and white. Later in his career in New York in 1942, Mondrian began illuminating the black lines of his compositions with primary colors as his style continued evolving.

1. PietMondrian
De Steilj,Neoplassticism and inspiration from Frank
Lloyd Wright

2. Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan ,born in
1872inAmersfoort, Netherlands anddied in
1944NewYork.
Hestudied painting for 4 yearsat the
Rijksacademie (Royal Academy)
Heis famous for his “Compositions” or non-
representational paintings.and was thus an
important proponent of the dutch artistic
movement de steijl or neoplasticism .
Hebegan his careeras a figurative painter but in
1911hemetthe Cubists inParis and changedhis
mind about the construction of the work of art.
After that he developed his poetry of the primary
values or structuralof the vision: line, plan,
colour.

3. A timelineshowingthe evolution of Mondrian's style

4. At the beginning of his work as an artist,
Mondrian painted in accordance with the
tried and tested canons of naturalistic
painting, otherwise known as realistic or
figurative.
During the naturalistic phase, the young
artist painted a variety of still lifes, a great
many landscapes, human figures and single
flowers.
Naturalistic Period
1895-1905

5. In the wake of the so-called Dutch
luministic painting, as well as the
work of Vincent Van Gogh and the
Fauves painters, Mondrian begun
around 1907 to use colors
corresponding more to his inner
vision rather than the more
immediate appearance of things.
A cloud became red against a blue
sky if this could better convey the
strong contrast a man feels against
the infinite space of the natural
horizon.
The landscapes are gradually stripped of trees,
houses and any other sign of human presence,
and seem designed to emphasize the endless
space of nature.
Luminism and Modernist
1908-1911

6. The figure of a single tree which
is another recurrent motif of
this period in Mondrian's work.
The artist sees a synthesis
between the canvases in which
the horizontal extension of the
natural landscape (equivalent to
the branches) predominates
and those that represent a
vertical architectural volume
(equivalent to the trunk).
In his writings, years later,
Mondrian would talk about the
natural as identified by the
horizontal and the spiritual by
the vertical.
The subsequent abstract
compositions of horizontal and
vertical lines are already present
in the figure of a tree, albeit in a
form still veiled by appearances.

9. For the Italian Futurist and the
French Cubist painters the goal
was a dynamic representation of
the visible; for Mondrian Cubism
was above all a key to detect a
more permanent reality beyond
the ever changing appearances
of daily life.
Cubist influence
1912-1916
Pier and Ocean (1914) marks a
definitive step in Mondrian's path
toward pure abstraction. Here
he has eliminated diagonal and
curved lines as well as color; the
only true reference to nature is
found within the title and the
horizontal lines that allude to the
horizon and the verticals that
evoke the pilings of the pier.

10. A contributorto desteijart movement
• Proponents ofDeStijl advocated pure abstraction anduniversality by a
reduction tothe essentials offormandcolour; they simplified visual
compositions tothe vertical andhorizontal directions, andused only
primarycolors along with black andwhite
While still in Holland during WorldWarI, Mondrianhelped found this
groupof artistsandarchitects called De Stijl, andit was during this
period he refined his style ofabstraction even further.
Composition with ColorPlanes shows his break with Analytic Cubism
.Here, Mondrian has moved away from the Cubistpalette of ochres,
grays,andbrowns,opting instead for muted reds, yellows andblues - a
clear precursor tohis maturepalette that focused on primarycolors.
That square proportion was toinform nearly all the works produced by
Mondrianafter 1916 .

12. Piet Mondrian, Broadway boogie woogie
1942
Frank Lloyd Wright, 'Kinder Symphony’
, Illinois, 1912.

13. In 1942 the black lines were illuminated with
yellow, red, and blue (X).
As a result, the colored planes Mondrian had
used in almost all the previous compositions
disappeared.
In the Neoplastic compositions, planes express
finite space and lines virtually infinite
continuity.
Previously reserved exclusively for planes,
color was applied to line in 1942, at which
point Mondrian found himself grappling with
compositions in never-ending development.