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Demo: Piet Mondrian

Influence

What influenced Piet Mondrian (1872-1944) who was instrumental in birthing the Abstract Art movement (1943-)? And how does his work influence what we do today?

  • Early work included patterns, especially after his years in Paris, when he returned to his home country (Netherlands) during WW1.
  • Then, back in Paris with art contemporaries (exploring cubism, etc) he focused on composition and how color impacted the grid form.
  • Until, while living in New York City during WW11, he added pattern into his grids (possibly representing the streets of the city).
Collected from images at https://www.piet-mondrian.org/ (Main menu > Piet Mondrian’s Masterpieces)

shapes to Explore:

  • Line (as unchanging solid vs change by pattern)
  • Grid (horizontal/vertical lines irregularly spaced)

things to Notice:

  • Contrast between size of rectangles
  • Size of negative space
  • Asymmetry (line, shape, color)
  • Value difference/similarity among colors

Opportunity:

  • Replace solid fill with pattern fill

for a Gallery:

  • black ink on white Zentangle® tile (3½”x3½”)
  • shaded with graphite, then colored pencil/pens

(Mondrian’s Composition 11 in Red, Blue, and Yellow)

(Note: to see the full list of demos in the Garden-ish series, choose this link.)