Piet Mondrian was a Dutch painter who was a pioneer of abstract art. He was a leading member of the De Stijl art movement, which advocated pure abstraction using only vertical and horizontal lines and the primary colors red, yellow and blue. Mondrian's style evolved from representational landscapes to fully abstract compositions consisting of thick black lines that delineated rectangles of pure color. This style exemplified his Neo-Plasticist theory that art should express universal harmony through basic forms and colors.

1. PIET MONDRIAN
Movement: De Stijl
Himanshu Bansal
10020516

2. De Stijl
Meaning: The Style
• also known as neo-plasticism – new plastic art
• Dutch artistic movement founded in 1917 and existed till 1931
• also the name of a journal that was published by the Dutch painter,
designer Theo van Doesburg
• Other principal member of the group Piet Mondrian, Vilmos Huszár, Bart
van der Leck, Gerrit Rietveld, Robert van 't Hoff and J.J.P. Oud
• was influenced by Cubist painting as well as by the mysticism and the ideas
about "ideal" geometric forms

3. De Stijl
Characteristics
• ultimate simplicity and abstraction, both in architecture and painting
• by a reduction to the essentials of form and colour
• uses only straight horizontal and vertical lines and rectangular forms
• primary colours red, yellow, and blue, and the three primary values black,
white, and grey
• avoided symmetry and attained aesthetic balance by the use of opposition

4. Piet Mondrian
Education
• His father was a headmaster of a primary school and a drawing instructor himself
• Fritz Mondriaan, was an accomplished artist who taught his nephew to paint.
• Diploma in teaching free hand drawing in primary and secondary schools.
• Studies painting for 4 years at the Rijksacademie (Royal Academy)

5. Piet Mondrian
Places he lived Art Style
The Netherlands Naturalism
1872–1912 1895-1905
Paris Evening Landscapes
1911–1914 1906-1907
The Netherlands Luminism-Modernist
1914–1919 1908-1911
Paris Cubism
1919–1938 1912-1916
London and New York Neo-Plasticism
1938–1944 1917–1944

6. Piet Mondrian
Key Ideas
• He simplified the subjects of his paintings down to the most basic elements, in order to reveal
the essence of the mystical energy in the balance of forces that governed nature and the universe.
• The basic vertical and horizontal elements, which represented the two essential opposing forces:
the positive and the negative, the dynamic and the static, the masculine and the feminine.
• Mondrian's singular vision for modern art is clearly demonstrated in the methodical progression
of his artistic style from traditional representation to complete abstraction. His paintings evolve
in a logical manner, and clearly convey the influence of various modern art movements such
as Luminism, Impressionism, and most importantly, Cubism.
• Mondrian, and the artists of De Stijl, advocated pure abstraction and a pared down palette in
order to express a utopian ideal of universal harmony in all of the arts. By using basic forms and
colors, Mondrian believed that his vision of modern art would transcend divisions in culture and
become a new common language based in the pure primary colors, flatness of forms, and
dynamic tension in his canvases.
• Mondrian's book on Neo-Plasticism became one of the key documents of abstract art. In it, he
detailed his vision of artistic expression in which "plastic" simply referred to the action of forms
and colors on the surface of the canvas as a new method for representing modern reality.

7. WORKS
Gray Tree
The Gray Tree exemplifies Mondrian's early
transition toward abstraction, and his application
of Cubist principles to represent the landscape.
The three-dimensional tree has been reduced to
lines and planes using a limited palette of grays
and black. This painting is one in a series of
works Mondrian created, in which the early
trees are naturalistically represented, while the
later works have become progressively more
abstract. In the later paintings, the lines of the
tree are reduced until the form of the tree is
The Gray Tree (1912) barely discernable and becomes secondary to
116.3 cm x 145.5 cm the overall composition of vertical and
horizontal lines. Here, there is still an allusion to
Oil on canvas the tree as it appears in nature, but one can
Gemeente museum, The Hague already see Mondrian's interest in reducing the
form to a structured organization of lines. This
step was invaluable to Mondrian's development
of his mature style of pure abstraction.

8. WORKS
Pier and Ocean
Pier and Ocean 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. The rhythms created by the
alternating lines and their varying lengths presages
Mondrian's mature dynamic, depicting an
asymmetrical balance as well as the pulse of the
ocean waves. Reviewing this work, Theo van
Doesburg wrote: "Spiritually, this work is more
Pier and Ocean (1915) important than the others. It conveys the
33 1/2 x 42 1/2 in impression of peace; the stillness of the soul."
Mondrian had begun to translate what he saw as
Oil on canvas
the underlying ordered patterns of nature into a
State Museum Kroller pure abstract language.
Muller, Otterlo

9. WORKS
Composition with Color Planes
While still in Holland during World War I, Mondrian
helped found the group of artists and architects
called De Stijl, and it was during this period he
refined his style of abstraction even further.
Composition with Color Planes shows his break
with Analytic Cubism and exemplifies the
principles he expressed in his essay "The New
Plastic in Painting.“ Here, Mondrian has moved
away from the Cubist palette of ochres, grays, and
browns, opting instead for muted reds, yellows and
blues - a clear precursor to his mature palette that
focused on primary colors. The blocks of color float
Composition with Color Planes on a white ground and no longer reference a
(1917) physical object in nature such as a tree or building,
while all reference to illusionistic depth has been
49 x 61.2 cm
eliminated. The composition is based on color and
Oil on canvas balance and gives even weight to all areas of the
Museum of Modern Art, New York picture surface, moving toward the precise balance
of his mature canvases.

10. WORKS
Composition with Large Red Plane, Yellow, Black, Gray, and Blue
Mondrian began to create the definitive abstract
paintings for which he is best known. He limited
his palette to white, black, gray, and the three
primary colors, with the composition constructed
from thick, black horizontal and vertical lines that
delineated the outlines of the various rectangles of
color or reserve. The simplification of the pictorial
elements was essential for Mondrian's creation of
a new abstract art, distinct from Cubism and
Futurism. The assorted blocks of color and lines of
differing width create rhythms that ebb and flow
across the surface of the canvas, echoing the varied
rhythm of modern life. The composition is
asymmetrical, as in all of his mature paintings, with
one large dominant block of color, here red,
1921 balanced by distribution of the smaller blocks of
Oil on canvas yellow, blue gray, and white around it. This style has
been quoted by many artists and designers in all
Gemeente museum, The Hague aspects of culture since the 1920s.

11. WORKS
Broadway Boogie-Woogie
This canvas presents the viewer with the
culmination in Mondrian's life-long pursuit of
conveying the order that underlies the natural
world through purely abstract forms on a flat
picture plane. Broadening the use of his basic
pictorial vocabulary of lines, squares and primary
colors, the black grid has been replaced by lines of
color interspersed with blocks of solid color. This is
inspired by the vitality of New York City and the
tempo of jazz music. The asymmetrical distribution
of the brightly colored squares within the yellow
lines echoes the varied pace of life in the bustling
metropolis, one can almost see the people
hurrying down the sidewalk as taxi cabs hustle
from stop-light to stop-light. Broadway Boogie-
1942-43, 50 x 50“ Woogie alludes to life within the city. Mondrian's
Oil on canvas last complete painting, demonstrates his continued
Museum of Modern Art, New York stylistic innovation while remaining true to his
theories and format.

12. WORKS
Abstractor Self Portraits Dorpskerk
Wood with beech trees Pollard Willows on the Gein Lozenge Composition with
Red, Black, Blue, and Yellow

13. IMPACT

14. "I wish to approach truth as closely as is possible, and
therefore I abstract everything until I arrive at the fundamental
quality of objects."
-Piet Mondrian
Himanshu Bansal
10020516