ENGLISH THROUGH ART: Piet Mondrian. The Beauty and Timelessness of Geometrical Abstraction

Even if art leaves you cold and you have little or no interest in fashion, you must have heard of Piet Mondrian, a Dutch pioneer of abstract art. He saw art as pursuit of truth and believed that 'to approach truth as closely as possible' an artist should abstract everything and thus arrive at the fundamental quality of objects.

To apply this idea in practice Mondrian developed a new style of abstract painting, which he termed Neo-Plasticism. It is characterized by the use of horizontal and vertical lines (no diagonals) and primary colors (red, yellow, and blue) and black and white. The painter thought that clearly defined colours and perfectly straight lines, which formed colour blocks, were enough to convey spiritual harmony and order; anything else was apparently superfluous and only distracted the viewer from the truth.“

Piet Mondrian  Composition No. II  1920

Mondrian's quest for what is real was prompted by Modern Theosophy, a spiritual movement founded by Russian occultist Helena Blavatsky (1831-1891). She set out to help the individual to find inner enlightment and claimed that there was no religion higher than truth.

Mondrian did not start as a geometrical painter. His first efforts encouraged by his father, who was a drawing teacher and an amateur artist and his uncle, a notable landscape painter, were channelled into creating landscapes and still-lifes that were very much in tune with the time-honoured traditions of Dutch painting. He was particularly interested in drawing and painting flowers as he believed that a single flower rather than a bouquet enabled him to convey the flower's natural plasticism.

Piet Mondrian  Chrysanthemum

Only when Mondrian moved to Paris in 1912, did he start to veer towards purely abstract works abandoning figuration altogether and totally renouncing the world of physical appearances. Partly it was because he had got under the influence of Cubism and partly because big cities were a place where one could lose oneself completely. Mondrian later said that in a big city like Paris, London or New York 'there is no need to show off - you can simply do your thing and be happy.'

It is true that Mondrian tried to clear his studio of any unnecessary clutter in the same way as he tried to liberate his work from any meaningless or purposeless detail. There was nothing that could upset the stillness or harmony of his studio - even the floor was divided by a harmonious arrangement of plain-coloured rugs. He is also said to have forgone the option of marrying and having children as he saw it as a potential hindrance towards his search for perfect art forms and towards the accomplishment of his lifelong mission - integrating art and life. Yet, he never negleced his appearance - bow-tied, suave, of upright, proud bearing  he looked impressive amid the rectangles that covered the walls of his studio.

Piet Mondrian (1872-1944)

Mondrian had a passionate enthusiasm for dance and music. In New York, where he spent the last four years of his life, he attended jazz concerts believing that the rhythm of jazz was the most congruent rhythm with what he aspired to convey in his painting. As for dance, it was a heightened emotional experience - the one that Mondrian also sought to capture and to get over to the viewers of his pictures. Mondrian was a keen dancer himself but he was contemptuous of the sentimental tango and loved the Charleston and Boogie-Woogie.Though Mondrian's works were lines and rectangles, his ultimate aim was not to show balance and symmetry but to show the dynamic tension that is often born out of dance.

Piet Mondrian Broadway Boogie-Woogie 1942-1943

Mondrian’s style has become a source of inspiration for many fashion designers. In the 1930s Lola Prusac, who was working at that time for Hermès in Paris, designed a line of bags and luggage inspired by the latest works of Mondrian: inlays of red, blue, and yellow leather squares.Three decades later, in 1965, Yves Saint Laurent gave the world his Mondrian frocks. There were shift dresses in blocks of primary color with black bordering, evocative of Mondrian and his paintings. The collection proved so popular that it resulted in numerous imitations from coats and dresses to boots and shoes.Fast-forward 50 years or so, and the color combination still resonates.