Composition with Blue, Yellow, Red, Black and Grey (1922)

The six lines that made a masterpiece

Composition with Blue, Yellow, Red, Black and Grey (1922)
Composition with Blue, Yellow, Red, Black and Grey (1922)

 

Mondrian was born 150 years ago and his birth is commemorated/celebrated in several venues.

  • A BBC article nicely highlights the seminal importance of Piet Mondrian’s contributions to painting.
  • This is a counterpoint to the Fondation Beyeler currently hosting an exhibition of Mondrian works, Mondrian Evolution, which closes October 9, 2022.
  • Kunstmuseum Den Haag holds the world’s largest collection of the artist’s works. Their exhibit is titled Mondrian Moves.

Mondrian’s love of music belies the intellectual veneer of his work. Explains Caro Verbeek, curator at the Kunstmuseum Den Haag:

“The members of the Stijl want to evoke a bodily sensation, a very physical type of aesthetics….Even the brush strokes perpetuate motion, The thin, vertical yellow plane, for example, is painted – counterintuitively – in painstaking horizontal strokes, creating that characteristic duality and opposition, while at the same time reminding us of the individual, the artist’s steady hand, within the universal.”

Piet Mondrian
Piet Mondrian   

 

 

 

 

 

 

Victory Boogie Woogie
Victory Boogie Woogie   

Mondrian’s work is discussed in the book Abstract Painting: Concepts and Techniques