Piet Mondrian
Pieter Cornelis "Piet" Mondriaan was a Dutch painter. He was an important contributor to the De Stijl art movement and group, which was founded by Theo van Doesburg. He evolved a non-representational form which he termed neoplasticism. This consisted of white ground, upon which was painted a grid of vertical and horizontal black lines and the three primary colors. More
Between his 1905 painting, The River Amstel, and his 1907 Amaryllis, Mondrian changed the spelling of his signature from Mondriaan to Mondrian.
Piet Mondrian timeline
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Piet Mondrian is Born
Pieter Cornelis Mondrian was born on March 7th 1872 in Amersvoort in central Holland and lived there for the first eight years of his life. He was... Read more
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Mondrian Enters the Academy for Fine Art in Amsterdam
After a strictly Protestant upbringing, in 1892, Mondrian entered the Academy for Fine Art in Amsterdam, already qualified as a teacher. He... Read more
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Mondrian's Interest in Theosophy Begins
Mondrian's art was always intimately related to his spiritual and philosophical studies. In 1908 he became interested in the theosophical movement... Read more
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Mondrian Moves to Paris
In 1911, Mondrian moved to Paris and changed his name (dropping an 'a' from Mondriaan) to emphasize his departure from the Netherlands. From this... Read more
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Mondrian Visits Netherlands; World War I Begins
We cannot know what immediate course Mondrian’s painting—as distinct from his ideas about painting—would have followed if the war had not disrupted... Read more
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Theo van Doesburg Promotes De Stijl Movement
It was while reviewing an exposition for one of these magazines he wrote for, in 1915 (halfway through his two-year service in the army), that he... Read more
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De Stijl Movement
After World War I there was a turning away from old forms and philosophies among architects and designers, just as there was among artists and... Read more
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Volume I of De Stijl Journal Published
The De Stijl (literally, "the style") art movement was founded by the painter and architect Theo van Doesburg in Leiden in 1917. It encompassed a... Read more
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Mondrian Returns to France
When the war ended in 1919, Mondrian returned to France, where he would remain until 1938. Immersed in the crucible of artistic innovation that was... Read more
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Van Doesburg and Mondrian Split
The friendship between Van Doesburg and Mondrian remained strong in these years, although their primary way of communication was by letter. In 1923... Read more
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Mondrian Moves to London and New York
In September 1938, Mondrian left Paris in the face of advancing fascism and moved to London. After the Netherlands were invaded and Paris fell in... Read more
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Mondrian Dies
Piet Mondrian died of pneumonia on February 1, 1944 and was interred in the Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York. On 3 February 1944, a... Read more