Andrew Munsey

Professor Mike Muir

March 7, 2016
Artist Report
The Artist I did my report on was Mondrian. Mondrians Personality, he wanted to
represent the world in its most basic form. The basic forms being vertical and horizontal
elements and representing the two important opposing sides. Some examples are positive and
negative and dynamic and static. His vision for modern art, demonstrated in the methodical
progression was different from the traditional representation his was abstraction. Some
influences on his art where movements such as Luminism, Impressionism, and Cubism which he
used the most in his art. Mondrian produced art of pure abstraction to express a utopian ideal of
universal harmony (Mondrian).
Moving on to Mondrians temperament or you could say his nature. Mondrian from a
young age began painting and making music with his family. At an early age he showed a great
talent in drawing. His parents gave him drawing lessons and took him out to the countryside to
sketch. Being outside a lot of the time Mondrian began having a great love and respect for
nature. A lot of his painting in his early life are of trees and nature. But as life grew on the love
for nature grew smaller and smaller. He began to paint abstract paintings which were quite
simple, with carefully arranged rectangles, but with few details.
Mondrians family life, he was born on March 7th 1872 in Amersvoot in central Holland
He grew up as the second of five children. In his household music and art were encouraged. He
had an uncle named Fritz Mondrian who was an accomplished artist who taught Piet the basics

and how to paint. His father was an enthusiastic artist who gave drawing lessons to Piet. As a
teenager Piet was thought very well in drawing and visited several schools. When he was 20 he
moved to Amsterdam to attend National Academy of Art there he joined many art societies and
submitted much of his work with various degrees of success. When he was 31 he won his first
prize from the Artiet Amicitae Society (Mondrian). Piet was never married and didnt have any
children. Soon after he went to Paris. At Paris he continued to pursue his career becoming
internationally famous. Because of the danger from the war he moved to New York City where
he spent the rest of his life. While living in New York which wasnt a long time he produced
some of his best work. He died in 1944 in New York at the age of 72.
The time period Piet Mondrian lived in was from 1872 to 1994. During those times he
lived in many places such as Holland, Paris, London, and New York. During part of his life
world war 1 was going on. WW1 affected his life dramatically when he left Paris for the first
time to go back to Holland to spend time with his ill father he could not return because of the
war. He had to leave his studio behind. Eventually the threat of the war made him move to New
York to be able to continue with his art. At New York he produced some of his best work. Such
as Broadway Boogie-Woogie and Victory Boogie-Woogie (Mondrian). His style of abstract
art is praised all around the world.
The painting that I feel is the most important that Piet Mondrian produced was the
Broadway Boogie-Woogie. The painting as I see it looks like a punch of colorful abstract
squares. But to the artist eyes it presents the viewer with the culmination in Mondrians life.
Presenting the order of the natural world through abstract forms on a flat picture plane. I think
this is his best piece because it looks to be so simple but at you look at it deeper it tells you a
story and I like that.

The emotions I feel this painting portrays is of simplicity and organization. How this
artist portrayed these emotions was by painting simple shapes and by using the same 5 colors.
Your eye moves around the whole picture your eye doesnt get stuck on one thing. He didnt over
complicate the painting and I like that. Piet wants you to think about his painting to be able to see
what its representing and meaning.
The artist style was of abstract paintings of colored shapes, rectangles, thick black lines,
and cubism (Mondrian). He had a very unique style and was praised much in his later years in
New York. He wanted to paint the world in its simplest form.

Work Cited
C. "Piet Mondrian." The Art Story M0dern Art Insight, n.d. Web. 7 Mar. 2016.
B. "Piet Mondrian Biography." Piet Mondrian Biography. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Mar. 2016.
A. Piet Mondrian life and work. New York. Abrams. Feb 2015. March 8 2015.