Piet Mondrian (March 7, 1872 - February 1, 1944), was a Dutch painter and an important contributor of the De Stijl art movement, which was founded by Theo van Doesburg.

Born at Amersfoort in The Netherlands as Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan, he began his career as a teacher in primary education, but while teaching he also practiced painting. Most of his work from this period is naturalistic or impressionistic. On display in the Hague's Gemeentemuseum is a number of paintings from this period, including such post-impressionist works as "The Red Mill" and "Trees in Moonlight". (Examples of his more familiar geometric later work are also on display.)

He was deeply struck by an exhibition of Cubism held in Amsterdam in 1911 which profoundly affected his later work. His search for simplification is shown in two versions of "stilleven met gemberpot" ("still life with ginger pot"). The 1911 version[1] http://www.guggenheimcollection.org/site/artist_work_lg_112_9.html is cubist, in the 1912 version[2] http://www.guggenheimcollection.org/site/artist_work_lg_112_11.html it is reduced to a round shape with triangles and rectangles. He even simplifies his last name, by dropping an 'a', signing his work as "Mondrian"[3] http://www.inghist.nl/Onderzoek/Projecten/BWN/lemmata/bwn1/mondriaan .

His painting "Broadway Boogie Woogie" at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is highly influential in the school of abstract geometric painting. The piece is made up of a number of shimmering squares of bright color that leap from the canvas, then appear to shimmer, drawing you into those neon lights.

His most well-known works are the familiar colored squares of three or four parts asymmetrically grouped, segmented blocks of straight lines and primary colors that some believe look as though anyone, even a child, could paint; however, others find his compositions in the style which Mondrian termed neoplasticism to be original and difficult to reproduce to obtain the same effect that Mondrian's work can give to some. His oft-emulated reductionist style continues to inspire artists, fashion and advertising. Although Mondrian was a fine artist (not a commercial artist), he is considered the father of advertising design, because of the widespread and continued adoption of his grid style as a basic structure of graphic design layout.

He died in New York City in 1944, of pneumonia, and was interred in the Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.

Reference: Schapiro, Mondrian: On the Humanity of Abstract Painting (George Braziller 1995).

Major works

• (1908) Molen (Mill); Mill in Sunlight
• (1908) Avond (Evening); Red Tree
• (1908) Chrysanthemum [4] http://www.art.com/asp/sp-asp/_/pd--10083376/Large_Chrysanthemum_c_1908.htm
• (1908) Evening, Red Tree
• (1908) Windmill by the Water
• (1909) Landscape
• (1909-10) The Red Tree
• (1910) Amaryllis
• (1910-11) Evolution
• (1910-11) The Red Mill [5] http://www.soho-art.com/cgi-bin/shop/shop.pl?fid=1044454597&cgifunction=form
• (1911) Gray Tree
• (1911) Horizontal Tree
• (1911) Still Life with Ginger Pot I [6] http://www.guggenheimcollection.org/site/artist_work_lg_112_9.html -- cubist
• (1912) Still Life with Ginger Pot II [7] http://www.guggenheimcollection.org/site/artist_work_lg_112_11.html -- simplified
• (1912) Apple Tree in Bloom
• (1912-1913) Trees
• (1912-1914) Scaffoldings
• (1913) Composition No. II; Composition in Line and Color
• (1915) Ocean 5 [8] http://www.cf.ac.uk/encap/mods/philosophy/se43251-6/se4325-6/sld016.htm
• (1917) Composition III with Color Planes
• (1918) Composition with Color Planes and Gray Lines 1
• (1918) Composition with Gray and Light Brown
• (1919) Composition with Grid VII
• (1919) * (1920) * (1920) Composition with Black, Red, Gray, Yellow, and Blue [9] http://www.artchive.com/artchive/M/mondrian/mondrian_composition_a.jpg.html
• (1921) Tableau I
• (1921) Lozenge Composition with Yellow, Black, Blue, Red, and Gray
• (1921) Composition with Large Blue Plane, Red, Black, Yellow, and Gray
• (1921) Composition with Red, Yellow and Blue
• (1922) Composition with Blue, Yellow, Black, and Red
• (1922) Composition #2
• (1925) Lozenge Composition with Red, Black, Blue, and Yellow
• (1925) Lozenge Composition with Red, Gray, Blue, Yellow, and Black [10] http://www.artchive.com/artchive/M/mondrian/mondrian_lozenge.jpg.html
• (1927) Composition with Red, Yellow and Blue
• (1929) Fox Trot; Lozenge Composition with Three Black Lines
• (1930) Composition with Yellow Patch
• (1930) Composition with Yellow
• (1932) Composition with Blue and Yellow
• (1935-42) Composition No. III Blanc-Jaune
• (1935-42) Rhythm of Straight Lines [11] http://www.artmuseums.harvard.edu/mondrian/studies/du3.html
• (1935-42) Rhythm of Black Lines
• (1936) Composition blanc, rouge et jaune or Composition in White, Black and Red
• (1936) Vertical Composition with Blue and White
• (1937-42) Abstraction
• (1939-42) Composition No. 8
• (1939-42) Painting #9
• (1939-1942) Composition No. 10
• (1942) New York City I
• (1942-43) Broadway Boogie-Woogie [12] http://www.moma.org/collection/depts/paint_sculpt/blowups/paint_sculpt_018.html
• (1943) Place de la Concorde [13] http://www.inter-art.com/en/10491.htm
• (1943-44) Victory Boogie-Woogie [14] http://www.outlawnet.com/~thissen/mondriaan.htm

External links

• http://www.artchive.com/artchive/M/mondrian.html
• The Mondriaan site http://www.mondriaan.net/
• Guggenheim NY Mondrian collection http://www.guggenheimcollection.org/site/artist_works_112_0.html
• Visual Art and Graphic Design » Modern Art » Piet Mondrian, His Work and de Stijl http://www.suphawut.com/art/western/piet_mondrian.htm