Reading English Books Together

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 Rus...

HISTORY OF ART: Vincent Van Gogh.  Sunflowers. Interest in Van Gogh's 'Sunflowers' was whipped up when in 1987 the Japanese fire-insurance company Yasuda paid $39.9 million for the painting below. Those curious as to what was remarkable about the painting that fetched such a hefty price found out that it was one of a series of sunflower paintings done by the Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh in the period from August to September 1888.   Van Gogh painted the Sunflowers series in a mood of sunny optimism when he was waiting for the arrival of the avant-garde painter, Paul Gaugin. They had rented a studio in Arles, in southern France and were planning to work together. The sunflowers were meant to be a sign of friendship and welcome. Van Gogh hoped that Gaugin would lead a community of artists that would be established in Arles - The Studio of the South. Van Gogh was contemptuous of the art trade and thought that artists could best fulfil their potential if they did...