Mondrian: The Art of Destruction
This book on Mondrian, one of the great pioneers of abstract art, analyzes the interrelation between his paintings and his theories on art and life as expressed in public writings and (largely unpublished) letters. Mondrian's art was not based on reasoning or calculation - on the contrary, intuition was central to his concept of the artistic process - but he always felt a strong urge to position his art in a wider cultural and philosophical context. Crucial to Mondrian's thought was the Theosophical notion of evolution, which required the destruction of the old to make room for the new, in life, in society and in art.
Mondrian: The Art of Destruction concentrates on the paintings, the artist's major achievement, examining the influences that shaped his art: Fauvism and Cubism c.1910, the work of Bart van der Leck, De Stijl and the Parisian art world during the 1920s. Mondrian appears not as an isolated figure, but as an artist who took a keen interest in the world around him, a veritable avant-garde painter who saw his role as a creator of a new, modern culture. |
Contents
Acknowledgements
|
7 |
The Years to 1914
|
19 |
191419
|
82 |
NeoPlasticist Painting
|
128 |
191944
|
168 |
References
|
241 |
248 | |
256 | |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
abstract abstract art Abstraction-Création Amsterdam appeared architect architecture artists avant-garde black lines Blotkamp charcoal on paper Colour Planes Composition in Colour Composition with Colour Composition with Red contrast critic Cubist dating Deyssel diagonal diamond-shape paintings display Domburg drawings Dutch easel evolution exhibition catalogue expression fact figure pieces flowers friends gallery gouache grey grid Haags Gemeentemuseum Hague Jean Gorin Joosten landscapes later Leck Léonce Rosenberg Michel Seuphor Mondrian wrote Mondrian's studio motif nature Neo-Plastic Neo-Plasticism Netherlands Nieuwe non-colour oil on canvas painter Paris period Photo photograph Picasso picture plane Piet Mondrian portrayed primary colours Private collection probably published referred relationship Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller rue de Coulmiers rue du Départ Schelfhout Sketchbook Sluyters spiritual Stedelijk Museum Stijl Still-life symbolic Theo van Doesburg theory theosophical Toorop triptych Victory Boogie Woogie visual wall watercolour Welsh Winterswijk writings Yellow and Blue York Yve-Alain Bois