1908 — 1911

Knowledge of the world through abstraction Mondrian and Spirituality

In the early nineteenth century, many artists become increasingly interested in theosophy, a combination of religious and natural philosophical approaches that relates all knowledge to God.

This movement can be seen as a reaction to the increasing materialism in society and the boundless affirmation of progress. Theosophists strive for inner wisdom through a spiritual development of the mind.

Piet Mondrian also studies theosophical literature and henceforth begins to incorporate a symbolic level into his artwork. By the time he joins the Dutch section of the Theosophical Society in 1909, his worldview had evolved from the Calvinism that characterized his parental home to Theosophy. Mondrian gives artistic expression to this new understanding of the world through abstraction in form and color—always following the idea of inner and outer balance that underlies everything.

Around the same time that Theosophy emerges, the German scientist and poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe questions Isaac Newton’s established theory of color: Newton assumed that color was a fixed property of real existing objects, which the eye observes and is only translated into color by the brain.

Goethe disagrees: He believes that each object adds its own mental color value to the eye’s observation. His assumption is based on the observation that darkness shows itself in deep blue, while the light of dusk bathes the world in a soft pinkish red. Mondrian takes up this color perception, for example, in “Zeeland Church Tower (Church at Domburg)” and, in keeping with Goethe’s theory of colors, henceforth concentrates on the primary colors red, yellow, and blue.

1911 — 1914

La Belle Époque Paris in the 1910s

In 1911 it seems that Mondrian has outgrown the Netherlands. He packs his bags and travels to Paris.

At the turn of the century, the French capital experiences a cultural heyday - during the so-called “Belle Époque,” many artists, literary figures, and musicians frequent cafés, restaurants, bookstores, salons, clubs, and bars in the Montmartre district of Paris. Science and technology also experience an upswing, making life easier and more pleasant for some - but by no means for everyone.

Despite all the positive developments of the 1910s, the spirit of optimism is countered by housing shortages, crime, and social poverty among some sections of the population.

Mondrian remains in Paris for two years before - due to the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 - he is unable to return to France following a visit to the Netherlands.

1914 — 1920

Between renewal and stagnation the 1920s

As gray as the political reality of the 1920s is, the development of international art is illustrious and experimental - many artists break with conventional structures and forms. They use artistic expression to sharply criticize the social ills of their time.

The Netherlands remains neutral in the First World War. While Europe goes up in flames, an important new art movement emerges in the Netherlands: De Stijl.

At first glance, the artworks of this movement appear as if they were created with a ruler on graph paper. However, a closer look at Piet Mondrian’s work reveals vibrant artworks composed of luminous primary colors that are meant to reflect the optimistic vision of the future held by the artists associated with De Stijl. Full of confidence and a powerful sense of utopia, the founding members Theo van Doesburg, Piet Mondrian, Bart van der Leck, and Gerrit Rietveld strive to reshape the world in all aspects of life. Since 1917, the center of the De Stijl movement is the eponymous magazine published by van Doesburg in Leiden, which until 1931, offers international artists and theoreticians a forum for visual art, architecture and urban planning, music, film, and literature.

Abstraction - i.e., the reduction of form and color - is considered the universal language of the artists’ group.

It is not until 1919, after the end of the First World War, that Mondrian travels again to France. He notices that Paris has lost much of the artistic-revolutionary energy he had felt just a few years before. From his perspective, art seems to be moving backwards. Still convinced that art plays a key role in creating a harmonious society in which opposites can enhance and enrich each other, he tries to make this very idea visible in his compositions. Mondrian also sets up his new studio at 5, rue de Coulmiers according to the criteria of Neoplasticism-squares, lines, rectangular blocks, and movable cardboard panels in the primary colors of red, yellow, and blue hang on the walls. For him, it is clear what the new art should look like. But Paris does not seem ready for Mondrian’s radical abstraction. His neoplastic work meets with incomprehension. Further hampered by renewed financial difficulties, Mondrian considers giving up painting. He makes ends meet with sporadic sales of flower paintings.

1920 — 1944

To be free Flight and Emigration

Since the 1920s, democracy is suppressed in many countries.

After the appointment of Adolf Hitler as Reich Chancellor in January 1933, the National Socialist regime begins to ruthlessly implement its unrestricted claim to leadership beyond the borders of the German Republic. Cultural policy is also massively affected. In 1937, the propaganda exhibition titled Degenerate Art opens in Munich, where, among other things, paintings by Piet Mondrian were shown. Artists whose works are on display there had been experiencing systematic exclusion and persecution since as early as 1933.

With the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, the Second World War begins. Many European artists, including Max Beckmann, Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst, Wassily Kandinsky, Lotte Laserstein, Kurt Schwitters, and Sophie Taeuber-Arp, flee into exile.

As early as 1938, the threat of war also prompts Piet Mondrian to flee from Paris to London. In the fall of 1940, he emigrates via Great Britain to New York. Here, he can live and work free of threat. That same year, Mondrian writes a text titled “Art Shows the Evil of Nazi and Soviet Oppressive Tendencies,” which he later changes to “Liberation and Oppression in Art and Life.”

Thanks to his friend, Harry Holtzman, Mondrian quickly makes acquaintances in the New York art scene. Although he enjoys the vibrant life, clubs, and especially the music of the metropolis, he spends a great deal of time in his studio, where, inspired by the dynamics of the city, he tries out new possibilities of expression for his painting. Mondrian’s studio becomes a social meeting place, not only for emigrated artists.

Creative Studio

The Mondrian Look

Mondrian’s studio is, for him, a mental place of privacy, where a multitude of artistic works are created. At the same time, it is his contact zone with the outside world; a meeting place for artist friends and interested buyers.

Mondrian always furnishes his studios in Paris, London, and New York in a similar way: He paints the walls white. He makes simple furniture, such as tables and stools, from fruit crates. Colored cardboard boxes decorate the walls, their position constantly changing. This creates a walk-in, neoplastic composition with which Mondrian explores the effects of color in space.

Based on Mondrian’s work, a cosmos of various adaptations, further developments, and new creations of the neoplastic principle emerges: The artist influences the artworks of his contemporaries of the De Stijl movement, the architecture of the Bauhaus, and later also product and industrial designers or couturiers such as Yves Saint Laurent. The seemingly simple compositions of black lines and colored surfaces on a white background revolutionized not only the art world. A close look at the exhibits in the exhibition “Mondrian. Evolution” makes it clear that it is only Mondrian’s principle that is consumable, freely adapted and interpreted for design templates, consumer items, or everyday objects - and continues to be so today.